George Soros is the subject of one of the more misguided conspiracy theories of the election
(Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Last week, politicalblogs started reporting about concerns that billionaire George Soros owned a company that manufactures voting machines used in 16 states, including swing states like Florida and Arizona.
Amid claims by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump that this year's election might be "rigged," some people took this as concrete evidence that Soros, a supporter of Hillary Clinton, would be rigging the voting machines to ensure a Democratic victory.
In fact, one person even petitioned Congress to have an emergency session to discuss the voting machines. Almost 57,000 people have signed the petition.
Here's the problem: Soros does not own the company in question. Also, the Smartmatic voting machines are not even going to be used in this year's election.
Smartmatic is owned by Lord Mark Malloch-Brown. He is connected to Soros through the Open Society Foundation, an organization that gives grants to civil society organizations around the world. Malloch-Brown serves on the Open Society Global Board. Smartmatic says on its website, "George Soros does not have and has never had any ownership stake in Smartmatic."
And while the company did have voting machines in Los Angeles and Utah during the primary elections, they will not be used on November 8.
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