NEW YORK, Nov 14 (BBC): US election officials have said the 2020 White House vote was the "most secure in American history", rejecting President Donald Trump's fraud claims.
"There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," a committee announced.
They spoke out after Mr Trump claimed without proof that 2.7 million votes for him had been "deleted".
He has yet to concede to the president-elect, Democrat Joe Biden.
The result of the 3 November election was projected by all the major US TV networks last weekend.
On Friday, the BBC projected Mr Biden to have won Georgia and Mr Trump to have won North Carolina.
Mr Biden was earlier projected to have won Arizona. His total is now 306 electoral college votes, with Mr Trump at 232.
It is the first time Arizona and Georgia have voted Democrat since 1996 and 1992 respectively.
Mr Trump has launched a flurry of legal challenges in key states and levelled unsubstantiated allegations of widespread electoral fraud.
In another development, a group of more than 150 former national security officials has warned that delaying the transition posed "a serious risk to national security".
In a letter, they urged the General Services Administration - the government agency tasked with beginning the transition process - to officially recognise Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris so that they could access "pressing national security issues".
Meanwhile, China has finally extended its congratulations to Mr Biden and Ms Harris after days of silence. "We respect the choice of the American people," a foreign ministry spokesman said. Russia has said it wants to wait for an "official result".
The announcement from US election officials marks the most direct rebuttal from federal and state officials of President Trump's unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.
Thursday's joint statement was released by the Election Infrastructure Government Co-ordinating Council - which is made up of senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the US Election Assistance Commission as well as state-level officials who oversee elections and representatives of the voting machine industry.
