FACT CHECK: Does Joe Biden's Nephew Own Dominion Voting Systems?

The tweet points to Biden's sister and campaign manager Valerie Biden Owens and tries to relate her with Stephen Owens, one of the co-founders of Staple Street Capital, an investment firm that has 75% stake in Dominion.

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The Electoral College officially confirmed Joe Biden as the 46th US President on Monday but Donald Trump's supporters continue to show their faith in him as allegations of voter fraud continue to be made almost every day. A new claim has now been made that Dominion Voting Systems, the technology firm that provided voting systems in multiple US jurisdictions in the November 2020 election, is owned by Joe Biden's nephew.

The Twitter post immediately went viral, with Trump's supporters once again getting a chance to say how voter fraud cost Trump this year's election, while many social media users have been trying to unravel the truth behind the claim. The post since has been shared aggressively on social media.

Were Votes Flipped?

One of the many allegations related to voter fraud has been that voting machines provided by Dominion Voting Systems flipped votes from ballots cast for Trump to that of Biden, thus changing the result completely. To support the claim a Twitter user last week made a fresh post claiming that Dominion Voting Systems is owned by none other than a Biden family member, who is supposedly his nephew.

The tweet comes with screenshots that appear to be biographies of two people Stephen Owens and R Kevin Owens. Moreover, the post, which is a collage of photos and biographies, points to Biden's sister and campaign manager Valerie Biden Owens. That's where the confusion starts. The tweet supposedly points at Stephen Owens, one of the co-founders of Staple Street Capital, an investment firm that has 75 percent stake in Dominion Voting systems.

The debate spirals from the surname Owens and since then several social media users have been trying to find a link between Stephen Owens and Biden.

Who is Stephen Owens?

Joe Biden
President-elect Joe Biden promised to take action against climate change Wikimedia commons

Trump and his supporters have perpetuated the lie that Dominion's machines played a key role in shifting votes to Biden's ballot. However, most of Trump's claims have been rubbished and his lawsuits have been turned down.

Still his supporters have not stopped making claims that voter fraud cost him the election. The latest tweet is nothing but just one of the any such false claims being made on social media since the day the elections were held. A closer look at the tweet reveals that it's nothing but a patchwork of misleading screenshots and assumptions, based on people sharing a common surname.

First, Owens is a common surname and doesn't prove that Stephen Owens is related to Valerie Biden Owens or her son. In fact, no Biden family member, to anyone's knowledge, has the name Stephen Owens. Second, Valerie and her husband, John T. Owens, have three children, but none is named Stephen.

The tweet also has mention of R Kevin Owens, an attorney who is related to Valerie's husband, but no such connection has been found between this person and Dominion. Thus, the claims are nothing but false and an attempt to forcibly draw relation between Biden and Stephen Owens by taking advantage of his sister Valarie's surname.

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