Hours after President Trump repeated a baseless report that a voting machine system “deleted 2.7 million Trump votes nationwide”, he was directly contradicted by a group of federal, state and local election officials, who issued a statement on Thursday declaring flatly that the election “was the most secure in American history” and that “there is no evidence” any voting systems were compromised.

The rebuke, in a statement by a coordinating council overseeing the voting systems used around the country, never mentioned Trump by name. But it amounted to a remarkable corrective to a wave of disinformation that Trump has been pushing across his Twitter feed.

The statement was distributed by the department of homeland security’s cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, which is responsible for helping states secure the voting process. Coming directly from one of Trump’s own cabinet agencies, it further isolated the President in his false claims that widespread fraud cost him the election.
The statement also came as a previously unified Republican Party showed signs of cracking on the question of whether to keep backing the President.

Across the US, election officials have said the vote came off smoothly, with no reports of systemic fraud in any state, no sign of foreign interference in the voting infrastructure and no hardware or software failures beyond the glitches that happen in any election.

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr’s lead in the popular vote has expanded to more than five million, and he remains on track to win a solid victory in the Electoral College.

The group that issued the statement was the Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council, which includes top officials from the cybersecurity agency, the US Election Assistance Commission and secretaries of state and state election directors from around the country. The group also includes representatives from the voting machine industry, which has often been accused of being slow to admit to technological shortcomings.

“While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should, too,” the officials added in their statement.

“When you have questions, turn to elections officials as trusted voices as they administer elections.”

In 2020, in part because of the vastly increased use of mail-in ballots, more than 92 percent of votes had some form of paper backup that can be used in audits or recounts.
The council was responsible only for the security of the actual election infrastructure — the voting machines, the scanners and the counting systems for ballots.

Arizona victory

Biden defeated Trump in Arizona, Edison Research projected on Thursday, increasing his margin of victory over the Republican incumbent by 11 Electoral College votes.

New York Times News Service and Reuters