The new owner of Dominion Voting Systems affirmed in his first interview since buying the company that President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and pledged that his company’s machines, used by nearly a third of US voters, won’t be misused to help either political party.

The new owner of Dominion Voting Systems affirmed in his first interview since buying the company that President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and pledged that his company’s machines, used by nearly a third of US voters, won’t be misused to help either political party.

Scott Leiendecker, a former Republican election official from St. Louis who already runs a separate election tech company,bought Dominionlast month and rebranded it Liberty Vote.

The surprise move, and a public announcement that seemingly embraced parts ofTrump’s pushto transform voting procedures, spooked election officials around the US, raising concerns about the future of a company that unexpectedly found itself at the center of Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

After the 2020 election, Trump and his allies publicly claimed, repeatedly and falsely, that Dominion software flipped millions of his votes to Joe Biden. SomeTrump alliesalsotried to breachDominion machines, in hopes of proving Trump’s fraud allegations. Dominion filed defamation lawsuits against many of the Trump lawyers and advisers whopushed these lies, and against the right-wing TV networks thatgave them airtime. (Its case against Fox News famously settled for a historic$787 millionin 2023.)

Since buying Dominion last month, Leiendecker has embarked on a goodwill tour of sorts, meeting with about 80% of Dominion customers, spanning about half the country, and privately reassuring election administrators with a flurry of in-person visits and video conferences.

“I’m an election person. I’m not on anybody’s side or anybody’s team. I’m on the American people’s side. I’m on democracy’s side,” Leiendecker told CNN in an exclusive and wide-ranging interview. “I want to make sure everybody knows I’m not siding with the left or the right. That’s important to me. That’s important to the process.”

Despite his past work in Missouri GOP politics, Leiendecker said he isn’t currently registered with any party, and “I am absolutely not an election denier.”

Democratic and Republican election officials, and nonpartisan experts who advise them, covering dozens of counties, told CNN that Leiendecker has largely allayed their concerns and confusion stemming from the abrupt rebrand. After many states with Dominion machines held successful elections this month, some of their worst fears have eased, largely thanks to what Leiendecker has said in private meetings.

One major source of comfort was Leiendecker’s promise to keep existing Dominion employees on the job, multiple election officials said. This could be problematic among hardcore election deniers who have called for purges.

“Their message was, ‘It’s the same team, same group, same contacts,’” said Zach Manifold, the nonpartisan elections supervisor for Gwinnett County, in the Atlanta suburbs. “That’s what I heard from Scott, too. One of the things he said to me was that the staff that was at Dominion were really great.”

Michigan officials were similarly told last month by the vendor that services their Dominion equipment that they’ll be using “the same proven product,” and to expect “no changes,” according to an email obtained by CNN.

Trouble may still lie ahead.

Trump has along historyofleaning onperceived allies in the election space to do his bidding. Leiendecker could face pressure from Trump or other election deniersin the administrationto somehow use Dominion’s assets to support their attempts to change election procedures.

Some on the right have already criticized Leiendecker for not doing enough to help Trump as Dominion’s new owner. Cleta Mitchell, who runs a national network of GOP election activists, said in anX post,“It is all a ruse. All of it,” complaining that the new owner hasn’t returned the $67 millionsettlementit received from Newsmax or invited GOP activists to audit its machines.

And there is also now growing distrust on the left. Last week, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat,claimedwithout evidence that Leiendecker bought Dominion to help Trump “cheat, potentially, with the voting machines” in the 2026 midterms, and urged states to stop using Dominion.

The announcement of Leiendecker’s purchase of Dominion landed on October 9 with apress releasepeppered with MAGA-friendly phrases.

It touted usage of “hand-marked paper ballots” (aTrump obsession). It encouraged “third-party auditing” (made infamous from the GOP-backedArizona snafu). And it highlighted its “100% American” ownership (even though Dominionwasn’tforeign-run).

It also promised “compliance with President Trump’s executive order” on elections. That order, which had already beenpartially blockedby a judge, featured Trump’s wish list to drastically change US election rules, like ending most mail-in voting and requiringproof of citizenshipbefore registering.

A lot of that language set elections officials on edge.

“The owner’s comment about making sure people use paper ballots did give me pause,” said Barb Byrum, the Democratic election clerk for Lansing, Michigan, who says she still hasn’t been contacted by Leiendecker or his new team. “That is a typical election conspiracy theorist talking point. As someone who works in the election space, he should know that as well.”

Byrum, who is running for the Democratic nomination in Michigan’s secretary of state race next year, said liberal activists are regularly asking her at campaign events to address their suspicions about the Dominion sale.

David Becker, anelections expertwho advises officials from both parties, said the rebrand “was incredibly clumsy, and unnecessarily raised questions about the partisanship of the new owners.” But the sale “doesn’t change anything” in terms of accurately casting votes and reporting honest results.

“Folks on the left, who worry that MAGA now owns our elections, should not be worried,” Becker said. “And folks on the right, who think this fixes everything because Dominion was changing outcomes of elections, they’re wrong too.”

A person briefed on the matter told CNN that after the 2024 election, there was an “aura of uncertainty” at Dominion about the future of the business. Years oflawsuitsanddisinformationtook a toll on its leaders, paving the way for a potential sale.

Dominion’s founder and CEO, John Poulos, already personally knew Leiendecker from their work in the relatively small election equipment industry, the person said. As negotiations over a sale began and intensified earlier this year, “the circle around it was kept really small,” the person said.

“I don’t want to sound corny, but I felt like it was my calling, in a sense,” Leiendecker told CNN of his decision to buy Dominion. “Somebody needed to do this. And I raised my hand to try to hopefully steer things in a direction where all voters can feel proud about what we do here in America.”

“I don’t know if it’s going to be possible, but I’m going to try,” he added.

Another person briefed on the matter said when the deal closed, Leiendecker expected to have more time to craft the public announcement. The person said: “They only gave him a few days; that’s why the rollout was so unartful.”

To help with the rollout, Leiendecker worked with Logan Circle Group, a Trump-aligned public relations firm thatvowsto fight for “America First.”

It’s unclear whether the rollout was intended to pander to Trump, to make the new Dominion more palatable to Republican customers in conservative jurisdictions, or something else. But election officials who have worked closely with Leiendecker are willing to vouch that he’s not a partisan actor.

“I’ve known this guy for 10 years, and I had no idea what his political party was,” said Manifold, the Atlanta-area elections supervisor.

Election officials have borne the brunt of ayearslong assaultagainst their work from Trump and his fellow 2020 election deniers. There have been record levels ofdisinformation, public vitriol and evendeath threats.

The Dominion-related conspiracy theories were a big part of that. So, naturally, that topic came up in many of Leiendecker’s recent sit-downs with election officials, multiple officials told CNN.

“I asked him point blank in our first meeting, where he’s at on the election, and if he believes 2020 was stolen,” said Matt Crane, a Republican who runs the Colorado County Clerks Association. “He said he doesn’t think 2020 was stolen, and he’s here to support the community of election administrators.”

In Leiendecker’s interview with CNN, he shied away from directly disavowing Trump’smantrathat the election was “rigged.” But he made clear that he does not have concerns about the legitimacy of the 2020 election results.

“I worked in Georgia. I witnessed all the recounts,” Leiendecker said. “They all came back the same. We saw a winner and we saw a loser in that election.” (MultipleRepublican-runrecountsconfirmed Biden’s victory in the state, which wascertifiedby Georgia’s Republican governor.)

Leiendecker added: “I don’t really like to go back and talk about what happened in 2020. I’m kind of moving forward. I don’t want to relitigate the 2020 elections. We’re in 2025 now. I’m focused on 2026 and 2028.”

The election industry is small and — until 2020 — operated largely out of the public eye. Professionals from both political parties ran elections, reported results, conducted audits and worked with vendors, often without issue.

Earlier in his career, Leiendecker was the top Republican election official in St. Louis County. He later founded KNOWiNK, a company that pioneered using iPads forelectronic pollbooks, which are used to check in voters and verify their registration status when they arrive at their polling place.

“Scott finds innovative solutions to issues,” said Ben Borgmeyer, the Democratic co-director of the St. Louis County election board. “We use KNOWiNK products every day. They’re a partner we trust. Their Poll Pad is now ubiquitous across the face of US elections. Almost everyone uses it.”

Borgmeyer said KNOWiNK helped him adapt during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Voters traditionally go to their own precinct and vote on preprinted ballots that contain their specific races. But during the pandemic, St. Louis and other cities openedlarger “vote centers”where any county resident could cast their vote. Borgmeyer said they used new KNOWiNK technology to print ballots “on demand” for individual voters to use after they checked in.

“It made so much sense, on so many levels,” Borgmeyer said. “They were trying to find solutions to make elections more efficient and accountable.”

Pollbooks aren’t involved in casting or counting ballots. After buying Dominion, Leiendecker is now a major player in that part of the process.

For the 2024 presidential election, more than 63 million registered voters lived in jurisdictions that used Dominion machines or software, according toVerified Voting, a nonpartisan group that tracks the equipment in every jurisdiction. That was about 28% of registered voters nationwide that year.

Still, industry insiders who spoke to CNN emphasized that even if Leiendecker wanted to weaponize his new company to boost Trump, as some Democratic lawmakers and activists fear, there would be serious structural limitations.

“I don’t think a MAGA takeover is even possible,” a former senior Dominion official, who left years before it was sold, told CNN. “Vendors don’t run elections. It’s run by county clerks and secretaries of state. Vendors only supply the equipment. They have no influence over the election results.”

There are also financial reasons why this wouldn’t be a smart move. It would alienate customers in Democratic jurisdictions. And embracing Trump’s call for hand-counting would undercut sales of their ballot tabulator machines.

The former Dominion official said, “if they did all the election denier stuff, it would not be a viable business.” And when CNN asked Leiendecker whether his acquisition of Dominion was a MAGA takeover, he replied, “it’s not.”