‘No evidence’ of compromised votes: US election officials

There is no evidence of compromised ballots or corrupt voting systems in the US election, officials said Thursday, as a top Democrat accused Republicans who refuse to accept President-elect Joe Biden’s win of “poisoning” democracy.   

Their messages came hours after President Donald Trump once again cried foul, re-tweeting a baseless claim that an election equipment maker “deleted” 2.7 million votes for him nationwide.   

Biden, who leads by more than five million in the popular vote, cemented his victory late Thursday by winning Arizona, US networks said, flipping the state Democratic for the first time since 1996.   

Arizona gives Biden a 290-217 lead over Trump in the Electoral College, with 270 needed to win the White House.   
With most Republican lawmakers having yet to acknowledge Biden’s win, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the chamber’s top Democrat, accused them Thursday of “denying reality” and “auditioning for profiles in cowardice.” “Instead of working to pull the country back together so that we can fight our common enemy Covid-19, Republicans in Congress are spreading conspiracy theories, denying reality and poisoning the well of our democracy,” he said.   

Senior US federal and state election officials meanwhile in a statement rejected Trump’s claims of fraud, saying that “the November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.” The statement was issued by the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council, a public-private umbrella group under the primary federal election security body, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security 
Agency (CISA).   
WASHINGTON AFP, 13 Nov, 2020-