Donald Trump is claiming nearly three million votes were “deleted” by the digital voting system used in some American states for the US presidential election.

Mr Trump has blamed the Dominion software for wiping 2.7 million of his votes or switching votes from him to his rival Joe Biden in key states.

As he maintained his refusal to accept defeat, Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on Republicans to stop the circus while Democrat Senate leader Chuck Schumer said it was time they accepted reality.

“The Republicans should stop their shenanigans about an election that President Trump has already lost and focus their attention on the immediate issue at hand – providing relief to a country living through the COVID health and economic crisis,” Mr Schumer said.

Dominion Voting Systems makes software that local governments around America use to help run their elections.

In Mr Trump’s latest unfounded tweet, he wrote: “Report: Dominion deleted 2.7 million Trump votes nationwide.

“Data analysis finds 221,000 Pennsylvania votes switched from President Trump to Biden.

“941,000 Trump votes deleted. States using Dominion voting systems switched 435,000 votes from Trump to Biden.”

“REPORT: DOMINION DELETED 2.7 MILLION TRUMP VOTES NATIONWIDE. DATA ANALYSIS FINDS 221,000 PENNSYLVANIA VOTES SWITCHED FROM PRESIDENT TRUMP TO BIDEN. 941,000 TRUMP VOTES DELETED. STATES USING DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS SWITCHED 435,000 VOTES FROM TRUMP TO BIDEN.” @ChanelRion @OANN

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2020

Mr Biden was declared the election winner after securing the state of Pennsylvania by about 54 000 votes to exceed the necessary 270 Election College votes.

Mr Biden also won the nationwide popular vote by more than 5 million votes, with about 77 million to Mr Trump’s 72 million.

Critics, media and Republicans alike have called on Mr Trump to provide evidence of voter fraud as his team pursues legal action that experts have said was unlikely to succeed or change the outcome.

As the election drama continues, Ms Pelosi accused the Republicans of being “engaged in an absurd circus right now refusing to accept reality” as the country suffers from the coronavirus pandemic.

“Stop the circus and get to work on what really matters to the American people,” she said at a media conference with Mr Schumer.

Mr Schumer said the Trump administration should accept its emphatic loss and focus on the coronavirus crisis, which was nearing 10.5 million infections across the US

“The election is over. It wasn’t close. President Trump lost,” he said, adding: “Senate Republicans, stop denying reality … and start focusing on COVID.”

“We just had a divisive and hard-fought presidential election,” Mr Schumer said.

“But 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.

Mr Schumer said Republicans were supporting the president’s refusal to concede for “no other reason but fear of Donald Trump”.

In recent days, Mr Biden has not publicly engaged with Mr Trump’s long-shot challenge, instead focusing on planning his administration.

On Wednesday (local time), he named long-time adviser Ron Klain as White House chief of staff, his first major appointment before taking office on January 20.

While Mr Trump is yet to concede the election, CNN reports the Trump administration has been actively blocking Mr Biden from accessing messages from world leaders through the State Department.

State Department officials told CNN, Mr Biden’s team has had to co-ordinate discussions with world leaders without State Department resources or translation services.

Mr Biden is also being blocked from getting the same intelligence briefings as the President, which could leave Mr Biden forced to play catch up when he takes office, CNN reported.

Meanwhile Mr Trump has taken furious aim at Fox News, which has not been actively supporting his truculent position.

He tweeted: “@FoxNews daytime ratings have completely collapsed. Weekend daytime even WORSE. Very sad to watch this happen, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there. They forgot the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the 2016 Election, and 2020, was @FoxNews!”.

Many viewers who support Mr Trump have switched their allegiance to the small right-wing Newsmax channel.

In a sign of weakening support for Mr Trump’s efforts, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, owned by major Republican donor Sheldon Adelson, on Thursday ran an editorial saying that Mr Trump “seeks to delay the inevitable”.

“There is no evidence… that fraud cost Mr. Trump the election, no matter how much the president tweets the opposite and his supporters wish it so,” the editorial said.

-with AAP