Statement: We must follow the law and count every vote

In response to efforts to stop vote counting across the country, the bipartisan National Council on Election Integrity — a group of more than 40 former elected officials, former Cabinet secretaries, retired military officials, and civic leaders — issued the following statement:

“The basis of our democratic republic is that we have the privilege of choosing our leaders — they don’t choose us. Under our Constitution, local and state governments are charged with carrying out free and fair elections. Once again our intelligence officials report no widespread fraud or irregularities. We encourage citizens to be confident in the process underway to count every vote cast in accordance with the applicable law. Any efforts to thwart or terminate the voting-counting process should be ignored. We are a nation of laws, and we must follow the law.”