The rumors about who bought Dominion Voting have been swirling for years. Honestly, if you spent any time on social media between 2020 and 2024, you probably heard everything from foreign dictators to secret billionaire cabals. But the reality is much more corporate—and recently, much more surprising.
In October 2025, the story took a sharp turn when Dominion Voting Systems was officially acquired by a company called Liberty Vote.
This wasn't just a name change. It was a total overhaul of the company's identity after years of being stuck in the middle of a political firestorm. The man behind the deal is Scott Leiendecker. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s a former Republican elections director from St. Louis and the founder of KNOWiNK, a major player in electronic pollbook technology.
Basically, the company that everyone was arguing about for half a decade is now under the control of a veteran American election official.
The 2025 Sale: From Staple Street to Liberty Vote
For a long time, the answer to who bought dominion voting was Staple Street Capital. They were a mid-market private equity firm based in New York. They picked up a 76% controlling stake in Dominion back in 2018 for roughly $38.8 million.
It was a standard business move at the time. Staple Street saw a stable company with about 35% of the U.S. market share in a "recession-proof" industry. Then 2020 happened.
Suddenly, this quiet investment became the center of the most litigious period in election history. Staple Street held on through the $787.5 million settlement with Fox News in 2023, but by late 2025, they were ready to exit.
The transition to Liberty Vote was framed as a way to "restore trust." Leiendecker has been very public about the fact that the company is now 100% American-owned. In his debut press release, he even said, "As of today, Dominion is gone."
He’s leaning heavily into the idea of a fresh start.
Who Really Owned It Before the Big Rebrand?
Before Liberty Vote stepped in, the ownership structure was pretty specific. You’ve got to look at the breakdown to see why the "foreign interference" narratives never really held water in court.
- Staple Street Capital: Held about 75.2% of the company.
- John Poulos: The co-founder and longtime CEO (who is Canadian) kept about a 12% stake.
- Management & Employees: The remaining shares were held by the people actually running the day-to-day operations.
People used to get hung up on the company's roots in Toronto, but by the time the 2020 election rolled around, they were headquartered in Denver and majority-owned by a New York private equity firm.
The Staple Street era was defined by growth and then, abruptly, by survival. Hootan Yaghoobzadeh, a co-founder of Staple Street, famously described the post-2020 period as "absolute crisis mode." They didn't sign up to be political lightning rods; they signed up for a 20% return on investment.
They ended up getting a lot more than 20% after the Fox News settlement, but the reputational cost was massive.
Why the Liberty Vote Acquisition Matters Now
You might wonder why a former GOP official would want to buy a company that half the country was conditioned to distrust. It’s actually a pretty savvy business play.
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Leiendecker already owns KNOWiNK, which handles the check-in process at thousands of polling stations. By buying the tabulation side (the part that actually counts the votes), he’s creating a massive, end-to-end election technology powerhouse.
He’s also betting that his background as a Republican official will neutralize the "partisan" complaints from the right. In private emails to election clerks in Georgia and Colorado, Liberty Vote reps have been telling people it's the "same team, same support, different name."
It’s a dual-track strategy: public rebranding for the voters, but "business as usual" for the government officials who actually sign the checks.
Clearing Up the Biggest Misconceptions
Let's be real—there is still a ton of bad info out there. No, George Soros never owned it. No, the late Hugo Chavez didn't have a stake in it from beyond the grave.
The "who bought dominion voting" question often gets confused with Smartmatic, which is a completely different company. They had a brief licensing deal years ago, but that’s about it.
Even the 2025 sale to Liberty Vote has its skeptics. Some folks on the far right think it's a "rebranding op," while some on the left are nervous about a staunch Republican owning the machines. But in the world of election law, the tech is what matters.
The hardware and software currently used in 27 states haven't changed just because the owner has a different bank account. Those systems still have to go through the same rigorous state and federal certification processes.
What This Means for the 2026 Midterms
If you're voting in the 2026 midterms, you might see "Liberty Vote" on the side of the equipment instead of the old blue Dominion logo.
For the average voter, nothing changes. The machines still use the same paper-based trails that audits have verified over and over. But for the business of elections, the landscape is totally different.
The "Dominion" brand was essentially toxic in half the country. By folding it into Liberty Vote and KNOWiNK, Leiendecker is trying to make election tech "boring" again.
Actionable Insights for Concerned Citizens
If you want to keep tabs on who is actually running your local elections, here’s how to do it:
- Check your County Clerk’s website: They are required to disclose which vendors they use for both check-in (pollbooks) and tabulation (the scanners).
- Look for Certification Reports: Every state's Secretary of State office publishes certification documents. These will tell you if any software or hardware changes were made during the ownership hand-off.
- Follow the Lawsuits: While the Fox News case is over, there are still lingering legal actions involving other networks and individuals that could reveal more about the company's internal finances.
The saga of who bought Dominion Voting is a wild look at how private equity, politics, and technology collide. It started with a quiet Canadian startup, turned into a New York investment win, and ended up as a strategic acquisition for an American election vet.
Whether the new "Liberty Vote" name actually fixes the trust gap is something we’re all going to find out during the next election cycle.
To stay informed on these transitions, you can monitor the official National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) updates or check your local state election board's vendor certification list to see how the Liberty Vote transition is being handled in your specific jurisdiction.