Protestors marched and rallied across the US on Wednesday as the presidential election remained too close to call. Most demonstrations were large, peaceful events organized by progressive groups calling on officials to “count every vote”. But in some cities, including Phoenix and Detroit, Trump supporters converged on vote-counting centers.
In New York City, thousands marched past boarded-up luxury stores on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, as ballots were still being tallied in key battleground states.
Similar protests took place in at least a half-dozen cities, including Los Angeles, Seattle, Houston, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and San Diego. Demonstrators gathered outside Dallas City Hall in Texas, and in Chicago, protesters demanding a complete count marched through downtown and along a street across the river from Trump Tower.
Many of these events were organized by local groups affiliated with Protect the Results, a coalition of grassroots organizations and labor unions.
In Phoenix a group of pro-Trump protesters, some of them armed, gathered outside the Maricopa county election center, where sheriff’s deputies were guarding both the outside of the building and the counting inside.
Many wore “Make America great again” hats and some carried signs baselessly alleging fraud. The Associated Press and other news organizations, including the conservative network Fox News, declared Biden the victor in Arizona yesterday, but Trump has been inching closer to a tie. Demonstrators chanted: “Shame on Fox.”
Despite reports that counting would be halted as a result of the demonstration, county officials confirmed that ballots would continue to be tallied into the night. Reporters, however, were asked to leave as the pro-Trump protesters crowded outside.
Maricopa County Elections Department
(@MaricopaVote)Staff at the @maricopacounty Elections Department will continue our job, which is to administer elections in the second largest voting jurisdiction in the county. We will release results again tonight as planned. We thank the @mcsoaz for doing their job, so we can do ours.
November 5, 2020
The incident echoed an earlier event in Michigan, when a rightwing, anti-lockdown group crowded outside a ballot-counting site in Detroit. The small cluster of Trump supporters descended on the center amid chants of “Stop the count!”. (In Phoenix, where Biden’s lead was shrinking, Trump supporters shouted the opposite.)
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
