Pro-Trump conspiracy theorist launches platform that allows random volunteers to become 'citizen adjudicators' of 2020 election results
Jeff O’Donnell, a Florida-based businessman whose LinkedIn profile lists him as CEO of software and security company Qest Development, launched a platform this November that aims to give volunteers the ability to determine the validity of votes cast in the 2020 election, VICE News reports.
The platform, called Polaris Recount, allows anyone to sign up and become a "citizen adjudicator" who can look at digital images of votes cast in the election and determine if they're legitimate based on minor smudges, errant fold lines, and other alleged irregularities. While digital ballot images are routinely reviewed by automated software, Polaris hands the process over to amateur sleuths trying to find proof of the kind of mass voter fraud conspiracy theories disseminated by former President Donald Trump and his allies.
O’Donnell tells VICE News that signups for the platform are “gaining exponentially” in recent weeks. “The people who start doing it, they become rabid, they become addicted,” O’Donnell said.
As VICE points out, the agreement users must comply with before signing up reveals O’Donnell's political leanings.
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“By submitting this request, you acknowledge that you believe that there is a high probability that the 2020 General Election was the victim of organized fraud and that numerous races, including the Presidential race, are likely to have been wrongly certified," the agreement states.
Additionally, O’Donnell's social media history is filled with pro-Trump content. In November, he appeared on a livestream with MyPillow CEO and pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell.
"O’Donnell says he will follow the evidence wherever it takes him. So far the Polaris system has completed the review of a single county in New Mexico, containing 300 votes. The report O’Donnell published about the review revealed a discrepancy of six votes, three of which should have gone to Joe Biden and three to Trump," VICE's David Gilbert reports. "Despite this damp squib of a result, and despite 14 months of empty allegations of widespread voter fraud with no concrete evidence to back them up, when asked if he believes the election was stolen from Trump, O’Donnell told VICE News, 'I think it’s likely… based on a whole bunch of numbers I’ve seen.'"
Read more at VICE News.