[ad_1]
President Donald Trump’s top national security official has urged voters to be patient as they await the election result in the wake of reports that the president could quickly announce his victory.
Acting Minister of National Security Chad Wolf said: “Voters must be patient as they await the outcome of this year’s elections.”
He added: “It is important to realize that this process can take time.”
Reports indicated that Trump informed people close to him that he would announce his victory Tuesday night if he appeared to be leading the election results, though he denied the allegations.
When the voting began, he told Fox News that “there was no reason to joke” about announcing victory prematurely.
Officials in several states said counting a large number of voting postcards could take another day, and possibly three days.
Wolf said in a press interview that US electoral systems remain “resistant”, despite attempts by foreign countries such as Iran and Russia to hack into them and obtain information from voters.
“We have no indication that a foreign player has succeeded in weakening or influencing the actual votes in this election. But we are very careful,” Wolf said.
Chris Krebs, head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in charge of electoral security, affirmed his confidence that the election results, which will not begin to appear before Tuesday night, will be safe.
But he warned that there is still time for people to try to disrupt elections or because of voting technology flaws.
“There may be other events, activities or efforts to interfere and undermine confidence in the elections,” Krebs said.
He added: “I ask all Americans to be patient and to handle all allegations that are provocative and unconfirmed with skepticism.”
