Terming the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's claim that the upcoming elections are going to be rigged as "ridiculous", US President Barack Obama has assured to preserve the integrity of the voting process.
"I don't even really know where to start on answering this question. Of course the elections will not be rigged. What does that mean? The federal government doesn't run the election process, it is states, cities and communities all across the country. They are the ones who set up the voting systems and voting booths," Obama told reporters here on Thursday.
"And if Trump is suggesting that there is a conspiracy theory that is being propagated across the country, including in places like Texas, where typically it is not Democrats who are in charge of voting booths. That is ridiculous," he said.
Trump's allegations does not make any sense and I don't think anybody would take that seriously, he added.
"We do take seriously, as we always do, our responsibility to monitor and preserve the integrity of the voting process. If we see signs that a voting machine or system is more vulnerable to hacking, then we inform those local authorities who are running the elections that they need to be careful," Obama said.
"If we see jurisdictions that are violating federal laws in terms of equal access and aren't providing ramps for disabled voters or are discriminating in some fashion, or are otherwise violating civil rights laws, then the justice department will come in and take care of that," he said.
Taking a dig at Trump, Obama said this will be an election like every other election and all of us at some points in our lives have played sports and sometimes some people, if they lose, they start complaining that they got cheated.
"But I never heard of somebody complaining about being cheated before the game was over, or before the scored was even tallied," he said.
"So my suggestion would be go out there and try to win the election. If Mr Trump is up 10 or 15 points on Election Day and ends up losing maybe he can raise some questions. That doesn't seem to be the case at the moment," the US president said.
Further attacking Trump, Obama urged the people of America to make their own judgements on the Republican presidential nominee.
"Just listen to what Trump has to say and make your own judgement with respect to how confident you feel about his ability to manage things like our nuclear triad," he said.
He said he has a very strong opinion about the two candidates who are running for president.
Obama is supporting Hillary Clinton, Trump's Democratic presidential rival, in the upcoming presidential elections.
"One is very positive and one is not so much, and I guess you will just hear any further questions that are directed at this subject, I think you'll hear pretty much variations on the same thing," he said.
"What I can say is this is serious business and the person who is in the Oval Office and who our secretary of defence and our joint chiefs of staff and our outstanding men and women in uniform report to they are counting on somebody who has the temperament and good judgement to be able to make decisions to make America safe," Obama said.
That should be very much on the minds of voters when they go in the voting booth in November. At the end of the day, it is the American people's decision, he said.
Obama further said if someone wins the election and becomes the president then his constitutional responsibility will be to peacefully transfer power to the individual and do everything to help them succeed.
