Dozens of angry supporters of President Donald Trump converged on the vote counting centers in Detroit and Phoenix as the results went against him Wednesday in the two key states, as thousands of anti-Trump protesters demanded a full recount of the ballots in the still undecided Elections took to the streets in US cities.
“Stop the count!” Trump supporters chanted in Detroit. “Stop the robbery!” they said in Phoenix.
The protests came when the president insisted without evidence that there were major problems with voting and vote counting, especially mail-in ballots, and when Republicans sued in multiple states over the election.
In Trump clothes, the Phoenix protesters filled much of the parking lot at the Maricopa County Election Center, and members of the crowd chanted, “Fox News sucks!” angered by the network declaring Joe Biden the winner in Arizona.
Rep. Paul Gosar, a Republican from Arizona and a staunch Trump supporter, joined the crowd and declared, “We are not going to allow this election to be stolen. Period.”
However, observers from the two main political parties were inside the polling place while the ballots were being processed and counted and the procedure was streamed live online at all times.
Several sheriff’s deputies blocked the entrance to the building. And the vote counting continued into the evening, said Maricopa County Elections Department spokeswoman Megan Gilbertson.
Two senior county officials, one a Democrat and the other a Republican, issued a statement expressing concern about how misinformation about the integrity of the election process had spread.
“Everyone should want all votes to be counted, whether sent by mail or cast in person,” said the statement signed by Clint Hickman, Republican chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Democratic Supervisor Steve Gallardo. “Accurate voting takes time … This is evidence of democracy, not fraud.”
Meanwhile, from New York City to Seattle, thousands of protesters turned out to demand that all votes be counted.
In Portland, Oregon, which has been the scene of regular protests for months, Gov. Kate Brown called in the National Guard when protesters engaged in what authorities said was widespread violence in the downtown area, including the breaking of windows. Protesters in Portland were demonstrating on a variety of issues, including police brutality and the counting of votes.
“It is important to trust the process and system that has guaranteed free and fair elections in this country over the decades, even in times of great crisis,” Brown said in a statement. “We are all in this together.”
Richard March attended an anti-Trump rally in Portland despite heart disease that makes him vulnerable to COVID-19
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“Questioning this election has dire consequences for our democracy,” he said. “I think we are now a very polarized society, and I am concerned about what will happen in the days, weeks and months to come.”
In New York, hundreds of people marched past bricked-up luxury stores on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, and in Chicago, protesters marched through downtown and down a street across the river from Trump Tower.
Similar protests, sometimes over elections, sometimes over racial inequality, took place in at least half a dozen cities, including Los Angeles, Houston, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and San Diego.
The confrontation in Detroit began shortly before The Associated Press declared that Biden had won Michigan.
Video recorded by local media showed angry people gathered outside the TCF Center and inside the lobby, with police officers lined up to prevent them from entering the vote counting area. They chanted, “Stop the count!” and “Stop voting!”
Earlier, the Republican campaign filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop the count, demanding that Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state allow more inspectors in.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, insisted both parties and the public had had access to the recount, “using a robust system of checks and balances to ensure that all ballots are counted fairly and accurately.”
Michigan has been nervous for months with fears of political violence. Anti-government protesters openly carried weapons to the State Capitol during protests by coronavirus restrictions in the spring, and six men were arrested last month on charges of conspiring to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
On election night, scattered protests broke out after the vote ended, stretching from Washington, DC to Seattle, but there was no widespread unrest or significant violence.
The lengthy task of counting this year’s flood of votes by mail raised fears that the lack of clarity in the presidential race could provoke unrest.
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