A man who once claimed he could prove a federal conspiracy against Sheriff Joe Arpaio — and who collected more than $100,000 from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office before it determined his claims were baseless — is now a key figure in a right-wing vote fraud conspiracy theory being pushed by key supporters of President Donald Trump.
Media reports and conservative activists on social media say Dennis Montgomery has been spreading the claim that widespread voter fraud is the product of a deep-state supercomputer called “The Hammer” and software called “Scorecard.” According to the claims circulated online, those systems were allegedly used to alter ballot counts across the country.
The right-wing website American Report apparently helped launch the idea in a story it published Oct. 31. American Report features, among other things, extensive stories reiterating right-wing conspiracy theories from the Obama administration era.
The site said Montgomery claimed to have developed the HAMR, or Hammer, computer and the Scorecard software in the late 2000s, and that it was commandeered by the Obama administration and used to steal the 2012 election and is now being used to steal the election on Biden’s behalf.
The claim has been pushed by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs and other high-profile allies in Trump’s orbit — though researchers have thoroughly debunked the idea.
