[ad_1]
DETROIT (Reuters): Republican and Democratic voters, tired of one of the most painful American presidential races of modern times, were in a state of great anxiety on Wednesday (November 4) with the election result still unresolved one day after the polls closed.
President Donald Trump’s false declaration of victory in the early hours of Wednesday, as scrutiny continued in several key states, angered supporters of Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
Biden’s supporters expressed greater fear that the Republican incumbent will not accept the election result if he loses. Meanwhile, many of Trump’s voters echoed his unfounded allegations of widespread electoral manipulation.
“Voter fraud is rampant,” said Trump voter Jimmie Boyd, 48, a North Carolina gun rights activist with ties to local militia groups. Boyd said he worries that “the leftists” may “destroy entire cities,” while protesters on the right will be demonized as “racist and phobic freaks of nature.”
Judy Mowery, 60, a Biden voter of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was also concerned about violence between opposing political blocs.
“Even if Biden wins, which I think he could, we as a country have lost,” Mowery said. “We are even more divided than I thought.”
The highly charged atmosphere reached a fever pitch in Detroit, where some 30 observers, mostly Republicans, were unable to enter a vote-counting room by election officials who cited indoor capacity restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. . Police were called in to enforce the decision.
Many of the excluded remained outside the room expressing their protest and singing God bless America while a second group of Republican observers who were denied entry held a prayer circle nearby. They also erupted in chants of “stop the vote” and “stop the count.”
The confrontation began shortly before CNN and Edison Research declared Biden the winner in Michigan, where the Trump campaign challenged the results in court.
Post-Election Day tension proved too much for some.
Some Americans said they would march in the streets against Trump’s overnight call to stop the tabulations of the ballots. Others turned to caffeine or got distracted by gardening while worrying at home.
“It’s like the twilight zone,” said Tanya Wojciak, 39, who estimated that she had had 17 cups of coffee and found herself pacing the floors of her home in Cortland, Ohio, as she watched the test results come in. battle states flooded by records. break the number of early ballots by mail.
“Trump’s terrifying and premature declaration of victory has puzzled me,” said Wojciak, who said she voted for Biden even though she is a Republican.
Legal experts have said the election result could be bogged down in state-by-state litigation over a number of issues, including whether late ballots can be counted.
Budding protests
Activists demanding smooth vote counts rallied in several cities, including Oakland, California; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Atlanta; Detroit and New York.
Hundreds of protesters waving American flags and signs that read, “Every Vote Counts, Every Vote Counts,” demonstrated peacefully in Washington Square Park after marching through downtown Manhattan.
“It’s very important that we make sure that our democracy is maintained,” said Meira Harris, 26, a social work student. “This election has caused a lot of anxiety.”
The Protect Results coalition, which encompasses more than 130 groups from Planned Parenthood to Republicans for the Rule of Law, had said it was organizing a day of mass protests in some 500 cities across the country. But at the end of the day, those plans were put on hold to allow time for a possible outcome to be determined.
US officials said they have been on the lookout for right-wing militias, concerned that Trump’s allegations of voter fraud could bring heavily armed groups to the streets. Until now, they seemed to be keeping a low profile.
Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the far-right men’s group Proud Boys, said he was cut down and three others stabbed early Wednesday blocks from the White House. One of his alleged assailants wore a “Black Lives Matter” mask, he told Reuters.
Local police said they made no arrests in the incident and could not confirm the affiliation. The Washington chapter of the anti-racism movement said on Twitter that it had nothing to do with the alleged attack.
Withdraw from the frenzy
In Gibsonburg, Ohio, Tom Younker decided to distract himself from television coverage of the election by tending his tomato garden.
Younker, a 74-year-old painting contractor who has served on the local election board for 34 years, said he was only able to sleep for a few hours after the Sandusky County vote counts concluded around 10:30 p.m.
“They are mixed emotions,” said Younker, who voted for Biden. “It’s like a rocker from top to bottom. You think you’re going to win a lot and then you see that it adjusts.”
In the southern Pennsylvania city of McConnellsburg, Stanley Kerlin, 66, a lawyer who voted for Trump said he was not confident that the large number of uncounted ballots in his state would be accurately tabulated.
“Most of them are in Philadelphia and you can’t trust those people any more than you can throw them away,” said Kerlin, a member of the Pennsylvania Republican Party committee.
Still, he said it was too early for the president to claim victory with so many ballots yet to be counted.
Arizona voter Marissa Yturralde, 32, who owns a travel agency, said she hoped that narrow margins in the presidential race would lead to a greater degree of bipartisan and ideological unity.
“I hope we can restore some sanity and respect for our fellow men,” he said. “We have to regain courtesy and have mutual respect for the opinions of others.”
[ad_2]
