Allegations that two buildings destroyed on Christmas Day contain evidence related to the US presidential election in 2020 are untrue. While a building was destroyed during an explosion in Nashville on Christmas Day, and a printing plant in New York State caught fire on Christmas Eve and later burned down, no building had evidence related to the U.S. election.
In a Facebook message (here) that has been shared more than a thousand times, it is falsely claimed: ‘In New York, a printing press, which is being investigated for printing and sending false ballot papers to Pennsylvania, burned to the ground on Christmas morning . ‘
The building of City Blue Imaging (www.cityblueimaging.com/), a printing house in Rochester, New York, burned down on Christmas morning after catching fire the previous evening (here, here and here).
However, there are no news reports available online stating that the company was involved in an election-related investigation, and Google is looking for any mention of the company and an investigation into voting fraud from the beginning of September to the date of the fire. do not even disclose online rumors about this circulating before the fire broke out (here)
The company’s Facebook page addressed rumors that have spread since the fire, saying: “To the misinformed people on @Twitter and @instagram, #cityblueimaging does not print #voices” (here). The company’s sales manager, John Mealey (here, here), also spoke about the rumor to local ABC subsidiary WHAM-TV, saying: ‘It’s crazy, the amount of misinformation you see.’
Beau Duffy, director of the New York Public Police Department, told Reuters in an email that they were unaware of investigations into the police related to the claims the paper company made to ballot papers. The Attorney General’s Office in New York said they could not confirm or deny any investigation. The City of Rochester government and police did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The same Facebook post also said that Dominion voting machines are being audited in the AT&T building that was destroyed by a bomb in Nashville. Similar claims have already been rejected by Reuters (here).
The report reads: “In Nashville, 2 days ago, an RV pulled up to a building and announced over a loudspeaker that he needed to clear the area. The RV then blew up and took half a building with it ….. oh, small detail – inside that building the Dominion voting machines were audited. ”While the post did not specify in which building they believe the machines were kept, a spokesman for Dominion Voting Systems said by email that none of them machines were not somewhere in the blast area, or that they were audited that day in Nashville.
The location of the badly damaged buildings seen in the photo along with the report appears to show after the explosion 170 to 176 2nd Avenue North in Nashville. The row housed Simply the Best $ 10 Boutique at 176 (here), Ensemble Boutique at 174 (www.ensemblenashville.com/) and the Pride & Glory Tattoo Parlor at 172 (www.prideandglorytattoo.com/), as well as apartments at the upper floors (here).
All of these businesses were allegedly damaged in the blast (here). There is no reason to assume that it is likely or even possible that these buildings will be used to audit voice machines.
Previous claims said the bomb was aimed at the AT&T building and that Dominion Voting Systems machines were being audited there (here).
Spokesmen for both Dominion Voting Systems and AT&T told Reuters in an email that allegations that Dominion voting machines were kept in the building in connection with the election were untrue. Both companies also denied that AT&T had a contract to audit Dominion Voting Systems machines (other factual checks of these claims can be seen here and here)
VERDICT
Untrue. There is no evidence that the New York printing house whose building burned down on Christmas Day was investigated for printing false ballot papers. Rumors of an investigation into the company only appear in the internet searches after the fire.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.