The acting US Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Chad Wolf, has said that there was no proof of a "foreign actor" compromising votes in the 2020 US presidential election.
The message came amid worries circulating that a foreign government might seek to interfere as Americans were voting on Tuesday under the shadow of a surging coronavirus pandemic to decide whether to reelect Republican Donald Trump or send Democrat Joe Biden to the White House in the 2020 presidential election.
"We have no indications that a foreign actor has succeeded in compromising or manipulating any votes in this election," Wolf told a press conference that was streamed online on Tuesday.
Wolf, however, asserted that Homeland Security agents "do remain on high alert" against all possible foreign threats to the election.
The top US security official claimed the US election systems had been "resilient" to attempts by foreign countries to hack them and to obtain voter data.
In the meantime, he urged voters to be patient in waiting for election results. "Voters should be patient while waiting for the outcome of this year's election," Wolf said, asserting that, "It is important to recognize that this process may require time."
In related news, the head of the firm running the election Chris Krebs, said he was confident that the vote results will be secure.
Krebs warned, however, that there was still time for people to try and disrupt the election.
He also warned that there were chances that there could be breakdowns in voting technology.
"There may be other events or activities or efforts to interfere and undermine confidence in the election," the head of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said, adding, "So I ask all Americans to be patient, to treat all sensational and unverified claims with skepticism."
State officials have said that the large number of mail-in votes could take one to three days to count.