‘Just too easy to hack’: Elon Musk claims voting machines rig elections, calls for paper ballots

SpaceX founder Elon Musk stirred controversy during a town hall in Pennsylvania, claiming that voting machines are responsible for rigging elections, according to a report by ABC News.
Musk, currently on a speaking tour across the crucial swing state, voiced skepticism about the integrity of voting systems, particularly those from Dominion Voting Systems, which have been at the center of past election disputes.
During his address, Musk drew a direct link between Dominion machines and Republican losses in both Philadelphia and Arizona. “There’s always a sort of question of like, say, the Dominion voting machines. It is weird that, you know, I think they’re used in Philadelphia and Maricopa County, but not in a lot of other places,” Musk said, implying potential bias. “Doesn’t that seem like a heck of a coincidence?”
He went on to call for a nationwide shift to paper ballots, hand-counted for transparency.
Musk, an outspoken supporter of Republican candidate Donald Trump, recently donated $75 million to Trump’s Political Action Committee, making him one of the largest contributors to the 2024 presidential campaign cycle, as per ABC News.
“I’m a technologist, I know a lot about computers,” Musk said to the Pennsylvania crowd. “The last thing I would do is trust a computer program, because it’s just too easy to hack.” His remarks align with a broader narrative among election skeptics who remain suspicious of electronic voting systems.
However, Dominion Voting Systems quickly responded to Musk’s allegations. A spokesperson for the company clarified several points, saying, “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’s statement referenced Dominion’s prior involvement in a legal battle with Fox News, which had promoted unfounded claims of a vote-rigging conspiracy in the 2020 election. Dominion reached a landmark $787 million settlement with Fox in 2023 over the defamation lawsuit.
Dominion also preemptively issued a statement prior to Musk’s town hall comments, urging voters to rely on credible sources of information. “We are closely monitoring claims around the 2024 election. We strongly encourage people to rely upon verified, credible sources of election information—sources who can fully explain the many layers of physical, operational, and technical safeguards that exist to protect the integrity of our elections,” the company said.