Donald Trump supporters gather at a “Stop the Steal” protest in front of the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix
Phoenix / Washington:
Hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump marched in downtown Phoenix on Saturday to challenge Joe Biden’s election as US President, accusing the media of conspiring to steal the election and calling the results a “coup.”
The Trump campaign lent support to protests that questioned the current vote count, and filed a lawsuit in Arizona Saturday over the rejected ballots that the Arizona secretary of state said were “grabbing straws.”
The Trump campaign alleged that the most populous county in the southwestern state incorrectly rejected votes cast on Election Day by some voters in the US presidential race. The lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court in Maricopa County, said poll workers told some voters to press a button after a machine detected an “overvoting.”
Pro-Trump protesters have been gathering outside the Maricopa County Elections Department and at the Arizona State Capitol for days, defending unsubstantiated claims that Democratic operatives had interfered with the election to illegitimately hand over Arizona to Biden.
They chanted “Count the legal votes! We’re looking at you!” outside the building where poll workers continue to count votes.
Tensions escalated on Saturday, with protesters at one point threatening to tear down the fence that cordoned off the elections department and some members of the group’s media.
At the state capitol building on Saturday afternoon, speakers urged the crowd not to accept the election results and called on paralegals and law students to defend the president.
“We all know that President Trump won this election!” one screamed. Another told the crowd to look in the mirror and wonder what they were willing to do. Songs of “freedom or death!” resounded.
Several far-right groups and militiamen such as the Proud Boys and Three Percenters were also in the crowd on Saturday, many of them armed with semi-automatic weapons.
The protesters at one point clashed with a small group of young counter-protesters waving Mexican and American flags on a corner in front of the elections department. Jacki Valencia, 19, danced with a Biden-Harris sign while an unmasked man who had flown a “Blue Lives Matter” flag yelled “America!” her and the others.
“I think it is ridiculous that they have gathered here,” he said. “They have no evidence that there was fraud.”
The Trump campaign lawsuit contends that potentially “determining” votes in the contest between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, who was declared the winner on Saturday by major television networks, were not counted.
An Arizona official denied the claim. “This is just a delaying tactic to delay official scrutiny,” Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said in a statement through her spokeswoman. “They are grabbing straws.”
The Maricopa County Elections Department declined to comment.
Biden leads Trump by 0.44%, or 18,600 votes, in Arizona.
Trump’s lawsuit, whose plaintiffs include the Arizona State Republican Party and the Republican National Committee, cited statements from some poll watchers and two voters who claimed the problem led to rejected votes.
Look for an order that requires a manual review of allegedly overvoted ballots that were cast in person. He also asks a judge to prohibit the certification of the vote until the review is complete.
On Saturday, a group of voters dropped a lawsuit that had made unsubstantiated claims alleging that some votes cast for Trump were not counted in Maricopa County because voters used Sharpie pens. Last year, the county implemented a new tabulating kit that made Sharpie pens the best choice on Election Day because they have the fastest drying ink.
Hobbs’s spokeswoman added that “they are reviewing (the latest lawsuit) now, but it appears to be a repackaging of the ‘Sharpiegate’ lawsuit. Hopefully this fixes the matter for good.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
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