Social media users shared a video outlining a conspiracy theory about the 2020 US presidential election and the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots.
In a periscope series shared on social media, which generates thousands of shares, the speaker is alleged to be spreading ‘the truth’ about election fraud. In this article, the primary claim is judged, but it is beyond the scope of the check to address all the different opinions and statements.
The woman in the excerpts claims: “The election fraud took place … They have the data, they just need the president to declassify Hammer and Scorecard” (here, 0:20).
It refers to a conspiracy theory of electoral fraud, already unleashed, that emerged in November 2020 following the US presidential election, in which Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump.
Sidney Powell, the lawyer representing former Trump security adviser Michael Flynn, referred to “the Hammer program and a software program called Scorecard” in a television interview after the election. Powell claims that the programs were used to “change ballots that were digitally collected before the election.” (here).
On November 7, 2020, Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), described the claim of an alleged “election hacking and voice manipulation operation” (here) as “disinfection”. CISA is the federal agency responsible for protecting the country’s critical infrastructure against cyber threats (www.cisa.gov/about-cisa). It was created in 2018 and works within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
In a tweet (here), Krebs said he was referring to the Hammer and Scorecard claim, describing it as ‘nonsense’.
The president fired Krebs as head of the Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Agency on November 17 and accused him on Twitter of making an “extremely inaccurate” statement that the election was safe.
Further fact-checking unraveling the Hammer and Scorecard theory can be seen here, here, here and here.
The speaker in the video further claims that voting machines used in the US election were ‘compromised’ and that the Chinese sold software to manipulate the result.
However, state and federal judges – some appointed by Trump – have rejected more than 50 lawsuits from Trump or his allies over election fraud and other irregularities.
Independent experts, governors and state election officials from both parties say there was no evidence of widespread fraud.
VERDICT
Untrue. The claims surrounding ‘Hammer and Scorecard’ and mass manipulation of voting machines have no credible evidence.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.