Claims suggesting Dominion Software, a provider of voting tabulation tools used in approximately half of U.S. states, “deleted” millions of votes have been definitively disproven following statements made by the outgoing President Trump that echoed figures originating from an online forum.

On Thursday morning, while addressing unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud via social media, Trump referenced OANN, a news organization with a right-wing perspective, which had, in turn, sourced its information from a discussion thread on thedonald.win, a website similar to the pro-Trump Reddit platform. (The post was promptly flagged with a disclaimer indicating the information was contested.)

An anonymous user on the forum asserted a comparison between data from Edison Research, a firm specializing in exit polls and election-related data, and figures from Dominion resulted in significantly different totals. The methodology employed in this comparison remains unclear, as do the results themselves. It is not apparent what specific data points were compared, the rationale behind the comparison, or the reason for the public dissemination of these alleged fraudulent findings by the entity purportedly responsible. This analysis has not been independently validated.

Larry Rosin, President of Edison Research, communicated to Politifact that “we have no evidence of any voter fraud,” and expressed uncertainty regarding the nature of the purported analysis.

Dominion previously received attention when a technical issue appeared to have incorrectly registered votes for President-elect Joe Biden instead of President Trump. However, this error was quickly identified and attributed to human mistake. The company has created a dedicated resource to address and refute misinformation surrounding its software.

Politifact assessed Trump’s assertion as “Pants on Fire,” deeming it “ridiculous.” Notably, the original post did not accurately represent the figures related to the alleged fraud.

The “analysis” lacks any demonstrable validity, but it serves as a compelling illustration of how individuals unfamiliar with the intricacies of the voting process – which encompasses the vast majority of those not directly involved – often view the software component with inherent distrust.

Nevertheless, the efficient counting, tabulation, and verification of millions of ballots within hours or days following an election necessitates the substantial use of private software tools, which are, in reality, both highly reliable and secure. The electoral process is conducted on a bipartisan basis and subject to rigorous oversight.

Election officials and state leaders have uniformly affirmed that the election proceeded remarkably smoothly, particularly given the challenges posed by conducting an election during a pandemic and with exceptionally high voter turnout, both in person and via mail.

A leading federal committee operating under the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency today declared last week’s election “the most secure in American history… There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised. We can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too.”

Despite accusations leveled by a decreasing number of government officials, no evidence has been presented to support claims of significant voter fraud or other irregularities in last week’s election, which concluded with the victory of former Vice President, now President-elect Joe Biden.