OTTAWA -- Outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump is pointing to Canada’s voting process in an attempt to bolster what remain baseless claims from him and the Republican party of voter fraud in the U.S. presidential election.
“THIS SAYS IT ALL!” Trump tweeted, sharing a post from Elections Canada, the national independent agency that administers federal elections, explaining our domestic voting processes.
“Elections Canada does not use Dominion Voting Systems. We use paper ballots counted by hand in front of scrutineers and have never used voting machines or electronic tabulators to count votes in our 100-year history,” read the tweet.
Trump has targeted Dominion Voting Systems in recent days as his campaign continues to wage legal challenges and call into question the integrity of the Nov. 3 election that saw record numbers of Americans cast a ballot.
While Elections Canada does not use this company, it has been used to tabulate results in some provincial elections, which are not in the agency’s jurisdiction.
In the run-up to, and since the U.S. election, Canada's elections agency has sought to respond to accounts posing questions about the integrity and process of federal elections.
In an emailed statement to CTVNews.ca, Elections Canada spokesperson Natasha Gauthier said: "Our message on Twitter was intended to respond to the large number of questions we had received from people who mistakenly believed we use automated tabulating systems in federal elections. It shouldn't be construed as anything other than that."
Trump has refused to concede to president-elect Democrat Joe Biden, who has been declared the winner after securing more than the 270 electoral college votes needed.
In the nearly 10 days that have passed since the election was called for Biden, Trump has sent numerous tweets -- many flagged as containing disinformation -- pointing to unverified claims of voter fraud and issues with the integrity of the election.
As The Associated Press has reported, last week the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which oversees U.S. election security, said that the vote was “the most secure in American history.”
Tuesday night, just hours after tweeting about Elections Canada, Trump fired by tweet the man in charge of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Chris Krebs. Trump claimed his statements about the security of the election were "highly inaccurate.".