He Questioned the 2020 Election Results. Now He's Accused of Firebombing Voting Machines

A Colorado man who questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election now stands accused of firebombing a local county clerk’s office containing voting machines at the heart of election conspiracy theories.

William Wayne Bryant, 71, was arrested on June 26 and charged with first-degree arson and use of an incendiary device in connection with a fire at the building, which houses the Archuleta County Clerk’s Office and Assessor’s Office, the Pagosa Springs Police Department said in a press release.

Authorities believe Bryant is the man captured on surveillance video throwing a Molotov cocktail through the window of the building, according to an arrest affidavit cited by the Denver Post and Colorado Public Radio (CPR). The offices targeted also contain voting machines manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems.

The building was unoccupied at the time and no one was injured in the ordeal, but the clerk and assessor’s offices remain closed due to damage from the fire, per Pagosa Springs police.

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Bryant is expected to be formally charged in connection with the attack on July 23 but is currently out on bail, according to CPR. An inquiry to his attorney was not immediately returned.

In years prior, Bryant was a regular at Archuleta County Commission meetings, where he would frequently talk about his distrust and dissatisfaction with voting machines manufactured by Dominion, according to minutes from 2022 meetings of the County Commission.

In one meeting, Bryant said he watched the widely-debunked film “2000 Mules,” which falsely claimed a huge conspiracy had rigged the 2020 election against Donald Trump. He claimed the film “brought to light a lot of information regarding voter fraud” and cited the film to justify hand-counting ballots instead of using Dominion machines.

Dominion’s machines were central to conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 presidential election. Trump falsely claimed that Dominion machines had deleted millions of votes for him in that election, and the baseless assertions were repeated on Fox News and other right-wing media outlets.

Dominion ultimately sued Fox News for defamation and settled for $787.5 million in 2023.