More Than 100,000 Trump Supporters Demand White House Act Over False Rumor

WASHINGTON, DC — The White House's "We the People" petitioning system implemented by President Barack Obama has certainly been abused before in humorous ways, but a huge number of Donald Trump supporters are completely serious in a new petition demanding action based on a false rumor. The petitioners also don't appear to understand how the petitioning system works, although they've reached the threshold to get an official response from the White House.

An Oct. 21 petition demanding that the president convene Congress to "meet in emergency session about removing George Soros owned voting machines from 16 states" has hit 100,000 signatures, thus earning some sort of response from the White House. There's just three problems with the petition: billionaire George Soros doesn't own any voting machines, none of the machines in question are used for voting in any U.S. states, and the White House has given itself a 60-day window to reply to these petitions -- well beyond Election Day on Nov. 8, which is less than two weeks away.

Nonetheless, it's an indication that a huge amount of Trump supporters are concerned about voter fraud and a "rigged" vote as people go to the polls on Nov. 8 to pull the lever for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton or Republican candidate Donald Trump.

The petitioning system has been used in ridiculous ways before. In November 2012, a tongue-in-cheek petition urging the U.S. government to construct a "death star" as an economic stimulus got more than 25,000 signatures. An official response in January 2013 said that the project would cost $852 quadrillion and would take 833,000 years to complete.

Trump supporters are totally serious with this petition, although it's just as ludicrous. A rumor has been circulating that George Soros is behind the "Smartmatic" voting machines that are supposedly used in a number of states, and due to Soros' ties to the Democratic party, Trump supporters fear that he will somehow rig them to help Hillary Clinton win the election.

However, the claim is false. Soros is not and has never been a shareholder with the Smartmatic corporation. Their only connection comes from the company's chairman, Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, who sits on the Global Board of the Open Society Foundation, a non-profit founded by Soros. But Malloch-Brown sits on the boards of a number of non-profits, and his presence on the board certainly doesn't suggest that Soros has any say in how Smartmatic machines are manufactured.

In addition, despite the claim that Smartmatic machines are used for voting in 16 states, in reality the machines aren't used in any states. Smartmatic's website notes that it offers "technology and support services to the Electoral Commissions of 307 counties in 16 states," but that doesn't mean Smartmatic is providing voting machines to those states. In reality, not a single one of those states uses Smartmatic for voting machines in the upcoming election, according to a Snopes report.

Smartmatic has even tried to quash the rumors itself, issuing a statement that reads: "Smartmatic will not be deploying its technology in any U.S. county for the upcoming 2016 U.S. Presidential elections."

Of course, that's not likely to sway the 115,857 Trump supporters who have signed the petition as of late Friday morning, and remain convinced that shady dealings are afoot.

Image via Wikimedia user Gage Skidmore