"There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," according to a joint statement issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) , an operational body under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and other government structures.
“The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history...There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
— Jason Calvi (@JasonCalvi) November 13, 2020
~joint statement put out by Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) pic.twitter.com/P3zl1iaLuL
The above sentence was bolded for emphasis in the Thursday release, jointly issued by members of the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Council and Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council Executive Committee. CISA Assistant Director Bob Kolasky sits on the latter.
The statement emphasised that 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 finalising the result," the election officials argued. "When states have close elections, many will recount ballots."
The agencies added that states with "close results" in a presidential election have a "paper record of each vote", which creates an "added benefit for security and resilience".
"This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors," the statement asserted.
According to government officials, despite "many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections", they want to assure the American people that they have "the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections".
"...and you should too," the statement maintained.
The CISA-published statement comes hours after Bryan Ware, assistant director for cybersecurity at the CISA, confirmed his resignation from the agency to Reuters. The White House requested his exit earlier in the week, according to a US official cited by the outlet.
Claims of Elections Fraud Continue to Circulate
This comes alongside the US president's campaign to investigate alleged wrongdoings and incidents of fraud in the election. Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the election is "rigged", with his campaign filing dozens of lawsuits across the country, citing a lack of transparency, the blockage of Republican observers from overseeing the process of vote counting and ballot back-dating. Most of these claims relate to the election-vote-rich states of Michigan, Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania.
The Trump campaign scored a small victory in Pennsylvania after Commonwealth Court President Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt moved to disqualify an inconsequential number of mail-in ballots sent in by first-time voters after it was unable to confirm their identities by 9 November.
Despite the legal win, Joe Biden, as projected by major media outlets, continues to hold the Electoral College votes he won in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
On Wednesday, US President Trump tweeted that he "easily" won the states of Pennsylvania and Michigan, as "hundreds of thousands of votes" should have "not be allowed to count".
Trump later added that Dominion Voting Systems, a company that makes voting machines, should be blamed for a loss of millions of votes said to be cast in his favour, citing a report from One America News Network.
"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," POTUS tweeted.
“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.” @ChanelRion @OANN
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2020
To add to the scrutiny, Fox News host Tucker Carlson unleashed a list on Wednesday night, which he said contained the names of dozens of deceased American citizens who have voted in US presidential election despite passing away. Some of them had died as long ago as 2003.
