Hours after US president Donald 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 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 co-ordinating council overseeing the voting systems used around the country, never mentioned Mr Trump by name. But it amounted to a remarkable corrective to a wave of disinformation that Mr 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 Mr Trump’s own cabinet agencies, it further isolated the president in his false claims that widespread fraud cost him the election.
The council’s statement Thursday was prompted by repeated “baseless claims of voter fraud that none of us have seen any evidence of,” said one the federal officials who signed it, Benjamin Hovland, chair of the US election assistance commission.
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 country, 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 episodic glitches that happen in any election. President-elect Joe Biden's lead in the popular vote has expanded to more than 5 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 and resistant to creating paper backups.
“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.”
China congratulates Joe Biden
China on Friday became one of the last major countries to congratulate Mr Biden on being elected US president.“We respect the choice of the American people. We extend congratulations to Mr Biden and Ms Harris,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular daily briefing, referring to vice-president-elect Kamala Harris.
“We understand the results of the US election will be determined according to US laws and procedures,” he added, repeating Beijing’s earlier stance.
Mr Trump's refusal to accept defeat has put Beijing in an awkward position, with China loath to do anything to antagonise Mr Trump, who has mounted court challenges to the balloting and remains in office until the January 20th inauguration.
Relations between China and the United States are at their worst in decades over disputes ranging from technology and trade to Hong Kong and the coronavirus, and the Trump administration has unleashed a barrage of sanctions against Beijing.
Shortly after Mr Biden's win following days of ballot counting in several swing states, numerous US allies offered congratulations, while the leaders of China and Russia were among conspicuous holdouts. In 2016, Chinese president Xi Jinping sent congratulations to Trump on November 9th, a day after the election. – New York Times and Reuters