With many more people voting by mail this fall, election officials feared that millions of ballots would be rejected in the general election. Instead, rejection rates went down across the country.
In his first interview out of office, Matthew Masterson, a top deputy to Christopher Krebs at the Department of Homeland Security, called 2020 "as smooth a presidential election as I've ever seen."
State Republican election officials say that there's no evidence of any widespread fraud and that these conspiracy theories are "crazy" and like a game of "whack-a-mole."
Christopher Krebs, who led the federal government's efforts to secure the 2020 election, called the operation near seamless despite President Trump's claims to the contrary.
The interdisciplinary practice combines cybersecurity, intelligence, public awareness and other disciplines — and the coming years will bring more challenges and evolution.
Black voters in Detroit, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Atlanta were crucial to Joe Biden's victory. Those are also the places where President Trump's campaign has targeted its legal efforts.
President Trump's campaign is insisting that Trump has a path to reelection victory despite Joe Biden's decisive win. Lawyers say they will pursue legal challenges to results in swing states.
"We don't want to be in a hurry and a rush because we want a very methodical process," said one election official as some Republicans continue leveling unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the election.
On Friday, courts in Pennsylvania and Michigan shot down Trump campaign challenges to the states' elections and counting processes. And in Arizona, another case was "rendered unnecessary."
The Trump campaign wants to cease or pause ballot counting in key states. Meanwhile, he and his supporters continued years of deliberate denigration of the integrity of U.S. elections.
Wisconsin does not have automatic recounts, but a losing candidate can file a sworn petition requesting one if the margin of victory is less than 1%. Democrat Joe Biden leads by roughly 21,000 votes.
Election officials have been warning for months that the influx of mail-in votes this year could mean a longer wait before the winner of the presidency is known.
Federal officials credit years of preparation and tough lessons from the Russian attack on the 2016 election for what they called a much better showing by government agencies at every level.
News executives promise restraint and caution for Tuesday's election coverage. Yet the media fiasco of 20 years ago raises haunting questions about whether they're up to the challenge.
The decision means about 127,000 ballots cast by drive-through voting in the Houston area will be counted. It follows similar rulings by a federal judge and the Texas Supreme Court.
