The Homeland Security Department’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other groups on Thursday rejected claims of voter fraud in last week’s election, saying in a statement “there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
The members of the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council Executive Committee, which includes CISA’s Assistant Director Bob Kolasky as well as leaders from the independent US Election Assistance Commission and from the National Association of Secretaries of State, the National Association of State Election Directors, and others, pushed back against claims by US President Donald Trump that voting machines had been tampered with to steer votes from Joe Biden to Trump.
“The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result,” said the joint statement quoted in the Washington Examiner.
“When states have close elections, many will recount ballots. All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary. This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors… Other security measures like pre-election testing, state certification of voting equipment, and the US Election Assistance Commission’s certification of voting equipment help to build additional confidence in the voting systems used in 2020,” the statement added.
The statement followed a tweet sent by Trump earlier in the day which quoted One America News Network, claiming in all caps, “REPORT: DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE. DATA ANALYSIS FINDS 221,000 PENNSYLVANIA VOTES SWITCHED FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP TO BIDEN. 941,000 TRUMP VOTES DELETED. STATES USING DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS SWITCHED 435,000 VOTES FROM TRUMP TO BIDEN.”
“First and foremost, Dominion Voting Systems categorically denies any claims about any vote switching or alleged software issues with our voting systems,” the company said, according to the Washington Examiner.
“Dominion systems continue to reliably and accurately count ballots, and state and local election authorities have publicly confirmed the integrity of the process. Edison Research has also categorically denied any claims that their data suggests any voting irregularities, including vote switching.”
CISA and the other election security groups also stressed in a statement with some of the text in bold, “ There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised… 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. When you have questions, turn to elections officials as trusted voices as they administer elections.”
On Wednesday, Trump’s campaign published a news release alleging that ballots were cast on behalf of at least four dead people in the state of Georgia.
A day earlier, Trump’s campaign filed a lawsuit in Michigan requesting the results of the US election in the state not be certified until it could be verified that votes were cast lawfully.
In addition, Trump’s campaign filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania alleging the creation and implementation of an illegal “two-tiered” voting system in last week’s election.
Also on Monday, US Attorney General William Barr authorized federal prosecutors across the US to pursue “substantial allegations” of voting irregularities before the 2020 presidential election is certified.
The move gives prosecutors the ability to go around longstanding Justice Department policy that normally would prohibit such overt actions before the election is formally certified.