Smartmatic, an elections vendor headquartered in Boca Raton, said it could pursue legal action against Fox News, One America News Network and Newsmax for publishing “false and defamatory” statements about the company and the 2020 U.S. Elections.
The company sent the news agencies legal notices and retraction demand letters earlier this month, it said in a statement.
“The demand letters identify dozens of factually inaccurate statements made by each of the organizations as part of a ‘disinformation campaign’ to injure Smartmatic and discredit the 2020 U.S. election,” Smartmatic said. “These organizations could have easily discovered the falsity of the statements and implications made about Smartmatic by investigating their statements before publishing them to millions of viewers and readers.”
The company had nothing to do with the "controversies" that certain public and private figures have alleged regarding the 2020 U.S. election, Smartmatic said.
“Multiple fact-checkers have consistently debunked these false statements with stunning consistency and regularity," Smartmatic said in a statement.
Smartmatic was the “manufacturing partner, system integrator and software develop” for the Los Angeles County voting system, which was the company’s only involvement in the 2020 election, the company said.
“Since its founding in 2000, Smartmatic has designed and implemented secure election technologies in 25 countries and helped election management bodies record over five billion votes without a single security breach, and where every single vote is auditable,” Smartmatic said.
In the demand letters to the news organizations, the company said it is “reserving all its legal rights and remedies, including its right to pursue defamation and disparagement claims.”
Contacted by the Florida Record, Smartmatic attorney J. Erik Connolly would not elaborate on what legal action may be taken against the news organizations.
“I cannot comment on Smartmatic’s litigation strategy at this time,” Connolly, of Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP in Chicago, said.
Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica said the news organizations have no evidence to support their attacks on Smartmatic because there is no evidence.
"This campaign was designed to defame Smartmatic and undermine legitimately conducted elections,” Mugica said.