Musk pushes debunked Dominion voting conspiracy theory at campaign appearance

FOLSOM, Pa.  — Billionaire Elon Musk promoted debunked conspiracy theories about election fraud Thursday at the first of a series of planned campaign events across Pennsylvania meant to rally support for former President Donald Trump’s campaign. 

At a town hall hosted at a high school outside Philadelphia, Musk referred to the false conspiracy theory that Dominion Voting Systems was part of a plot to rig U.S. elections in recent years.

“When you have mail-in ballots and no proof of citizenship, it’s almost impossible to prove cheating,” he said, responding to an audience member’s question about election fraud. “Statistically there are some very strange things that happen that are statistically incredibly unlikely. There’s always this question of, say, the Dominion voting machines. It is weird that, I think, they were used in Philadelphia and in Maricopa County [in Arizona] but not in a lot of other places. Doesn’t that seem like a heck of a coincidence?”

“The last thing I would do is trust a computer program,” he said, promoting the idea that U.S. elections should use only paper ballots. The Brennan Center for Justice, a progressive nonprofit law and public policy institute, has found that 98% of votes in the general election are expected to be cast on paper ballots.

In a statement, a Dominion spokesperson disputed numerous aspects of Musk’s comments.

“Fact: Dominion does not serve Philadelphia County. Fact: Dominion’s voting systems are already based on voter verified paper ballots. Fact: Hand counts and audits of such paper ballots have repeatedly proven that Dominion machines produce accurate results. These are not matters of opinion. They are verifiable facts,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.

The company has broadly rejected any claims that it has participated in efforts to manipulate elections. Last year, it struck a $787.5 million settlement with Fox News in its defamation lawsuit against the media outlet over such claims.

Contrary to Musk’s claim that Dominion’s software was used in only a small number of counties, a Reuters fact-check found that Dominion systems were used in at least 24 states for the 2020 elections.

Musk’s appearance, which was streamed live by the Philadelphia Fox station, as well as on X, comes as Musk has ramped up his support for Trump. Musk has given nearly $75 million to his pro-Trump America PAC, which he established this year. Two weeks ago, he joined Trump onstage at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. 

Musk has also turned his own X account, with more than 200 million followers, into a nearly nonstop stream of Trump support, in which he has repeatedly pushed false claims about immigration and voter fraud. 

Studies and investigations have found that there’s no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the U.S. When voter fraud has occurred, prosecutors have successfully brought cases against perpetrators including in a highly publicized fraud scheme in North Carolina.

Musk spoke for about 10 minutes in what seemed to be off-the-cuff remarks that ranged from concerns about censorship and government spending to the Second Amendment and safety in cities, making the claim that cities have become less safe for their residents. The most recent data released by the FBI has suggested that crime has generally been dropping across the U.S., including in major cities.

Speaking about the U.S.-Mexico border, Musk compared it to the zombie movie “World War Z.”

Musk then took questions for about 40 minutes, at one point engaging with a member of the audience who was shouting about Democratic megadonor George Soros, who has long been the subject of antisemitic conspiracy theories. In response, Musk called Soros “evil” and said he is “tearing down the fabric of society.”

In a response to another question, Musk pushed a baseless conspiracy theory that Vice President Kamala Harris was being controlled by an unknown group of people. 

Musk repeatedly encouraged the audience members to engage their friends and family members and get them registered to vote in the state — where the deadline to register is Monday.

“Pennsylvania is the linchpin in this election, and this election is going to decide the fate of America and, along with America, the fate of Western civilization,” Musk told the crowd as he stood in front of an American flag. 

Emma Barnett reported from Folsom and Ben Goggin and Kat Tenbarge reported from New York City.