The Times contacted top election officials in every state to ask about illegal voting. Officials in 45 states responded directly. For four of the remaining states, The Times spoke to other statewide officials or found public comments from secretaries of state. None said they had found evidence of any substantial fraud.
Asked whether the State Department was preparing for the transition, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.” Related: The Times’s Peter Baker and Lara Jakes look at the ways Trump is harnessing the government to try to stay in office.
Biden called Trump’s refusal to concede “an embarrassment” but added, “The fact that they’re not willing to acknowledge we’ve won is not of much consequence.”
A Pennsylvania postal worker who claimed to have witnessed election fraud admitted to investigators that he fabricated the allegations. Republicans had amplified the claims to suggest there was widespread voter fraud in the state.
The New York Times
