There is no evidence of compromised ballots or corrupt voting systems in the US election, officials have said, as a top Democrat accused Republicans who refuse to accept President-elect Joe Biden's win of "poisoning" democracy.
Their messages came hours after President Donald Trump once again cried foul, retweeting a baseless claim that an election equipment maker "deleted" 2.7 million votes for him nationwide.
With most Republican politicians yet to acknowledge Mr Biden's win, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the chamber's top Democrat, accused them of "denying reality" and "auditioning for profiles in cowardice".
"Instead of working to pull the country back together so that we can fight our common enemy Covid-19, Republicans in Congress are spreading conspiracy theories, denying reality and poisoning the well of our democracy," he said.
Senior US federal and state election officials have issued a statement rejecting Mr Trump's claims of fraud, saying that "the November 3rd election was the most secure in American history".
The statement was issued by the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council, a public-private umbrella group under the primary federal election security body, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
"There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," they said.
"While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too," the statement said.
It was signed by the heads of the National Association of State Election Directors and the National Association of Secretaries of State - the officials who manage elections at the state level - and by the chairman of the US Election Assistance Commission.
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China today congratulated Mr Biden nearly a week after he was declared winner of the election.
"We respect the choice of the American people. We express our congratulations to Mr Biden and Ms Harris," said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at a press briefing, referring to incoming vice president Kamala Harris.
Brazil's vice president Hamilton Mourao said that Mr Biden's victory was "becoming more and more irreversible".
In an interview with Radio Gaucha, Mr Mourao said he would wait to see what initiatives the next US president pursues when he takes office.
Meanwhile, Mr Biden will win the battleground state of Arizona, Edison Research has projected, further dealing a blow to Mr Trump's struggling effort to overturn the results of the election.
Mr Biden's win in Arizona gives the Democrat 290 electoral votes in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the winner, more than the 270 needed to claim victory.
He is also winning the popular vote by more than 5.2 million votes, or 3.4 percentage points.
With a few states still counting votes, the electoral math is daunting for President Trump. He has repeatedly claimed the election was marred by widespread fraud, with no evidence to support his assertions.
The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits challenging the vote counts in individual states, although some have already been thrown out by judges.
Legal experts have said the litigation stands little chance of altering the outcome.
Hand-count audits in more than six Arizona counties, including Maricopa County, where a majority of the state's residents live, found only minor discrepancies, the secretary of state's office reported earlier today.
The audits involve hand counts of a random sampling of ballots.
Thus far, most Republican officials and politicians have publicly backed Mr Trump's attempt to contest the election results and declined to recognise Mr Biden as the president-elect.
But a handful of Republican senators have urged the Trump administration to allow Mr Biden to receive intelligence briefings, implicitly acknowledging he could eventually occupy the White House even as they refused to recognise his win.
The president-elect traditionally receives such briefings from the intelligence community to learn of threats facing the United States before taking office.
Senator John Cornyn told reporters: "I don't see it as a high-risk proposition. I just think it's part of the transition. And, if in fact he does win in the end, I think they need to be able to hit the ground running."
Other Republican senators also said Mr Biden should have access to classified briefings, including Lindsey Graham, a vocal Trump supporter, as well as Ron Johnson, James Lankford and Chuck Grassley.
However, the top House Republican, Kevin McCarthy, opposed the idea.
He said: "He's not president right now. I don't know if he'll be president on 20 January."
