Flying in the face of claims by President Donald Trump of voting fraud, the US Department of Homeland Security says the 2020 presidential election was in fact the most secure in US history.
In a statement, the DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said it is aware of “many unfounded claims” and “opportunities for misinformation” about the election process.
“[But] we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too,” CISA said.
“The November 3 election was the most secure in American history.”
SEE: Managing AI and ML in the enterprise 2020: Tech leaders increase project development and implementation (TechRepublic Premium)
CISA said election officials are reviewing and double-checking the entire election process before finalizing the result.
“When states have close elections, many will recount ballots. All 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,” it said.
“There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
The DHS issued the statement following a report from Reuters that CISA director Chris Krebs said he expects to be fired by the White House.
Trump, who has yet to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory, on Thursday tweeted without evidence that 2.7 million votes for him had been deleted, Associated Press reported.
Krebs in a tweet today repeated the CISA line that, “We have confidence in the security of your vote, you should too.”
In the days leading up to the election, Krebs released a message warning Americans not to overreact to bogus claims about election security.
“The election experience is designed to ensure that technology is not a single point of failure and there are measures in place to ensure that that you can vote and that your vote is counted correctly,” he said.
“You should have confidence in the integrity of the process and don’t overreact to claims that exaggerate the importance of insignificant events,” said Krebs.
SEE: Technology’s next big challenge: To be fairer to everyone
CISA noted that the US had implemented pre-election testing and state certification of voting equipment, while the US Election Assistance Commission had a certification process for vetting voting equipment.
“When you have questions, turn to elections officials as trusted voices as they administer elections,” the agency said.
CISA director Chris Krebs: “We have confidence in the security of your vote, you should too.”
Image: CISA
