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PHILADELPHIA: A second day of demonstrations sometimes mourning the integrity of the US presidential election began early Thursday (November 5) in Philadelphia and other cities as the vote dragged on in a handful of states that will decide the Outcome.
Supporters of Joe Biden have joined the slogan of “count every vote,” believing that a full recount would show that the former Democratic vice president had defeated Republican President Donald Trump. Zealous Trump supporters have responded with cries to “protect the vote” in support of his campaign efforts to have some categories of ballots scrapped, including some votes sent by mail.
Both factions appeared outside a vote-counting center in Philadelphia on Thursday morning (Nov. 5), where election staff constantly worked through a mountain of uncounted mail ballots that will determine whether Biden or Trump will take the ballots. 20 crucial votes from the Pennsylvania Electoral College. .
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A group of Trump supporters held up Trump-Pence banners and posters that read, “Voting stops on Election Day” and “Sorry, the polls are closed.” Across the street were Biden supporters, dancing to music behind a barricade. Similar rallies were planned later that day in Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania.
“We can’t allow the ballot counters to be intimidated,” said Bob Posuney, a 70-year-old retired social worker who supports Biden in a “count all votes” t-shirt, speaking like the sound of the Marvin Gaye song. ” What’s Going On “filled the air.
A group calling itself Bikers for Trump gathered outside the Philadelphia Convention Center.
“I think voter fraud is systemic,” said Chris Cox, one of the riders. Multiple studies have concluded that illegitimate ballots are extremely rare in the United States.
Although the count has already been completed in Michigan, where the media projected that Biden had won, a few dozen Trump supporters waved flags and banners in front of a Detroit tally center. At one point, a black Trump supporter yelled at a black Democrat over Trump’s record on black affairs as police watched.
The hands of Biden supporter Angelo Austin and Trump supporter CL Bryant, right, gesticulate as they argue as Trump supporters demonstrate against the election results outside the central canvassing board at the TCF Center in Detroit, Michigan, on November 5, 2020 (Photo: AP / David Goldman)
Elizabeth Fohey, a 74-year-old retired dental hygienist from Troy, Michigan, said she was skeptical that election officials were counting all conservative votes. She complained that Republican contenders in the election couldn’t get into a Detroit tally center, which is not true.
“My message is that the vote is done correctly,” she said, dressed in a windbreaker with the American flag. “I am working for my country, to keep my country free and safe.”
In Wisconsin, Bobbie Dunlap, an information technology worker living in the city of Genoa, complained that she voted in person for Trump on Election Day, but her vote has yet to be marked as processed on the website. from Wisconsin, though the count is ongoing in the state.
“We are organizing a peaceful march in the capital to ask for a full audit of the elections here in Wisconsin,” he said. The Trump campaign has called for a recount in the state.
In Washington, a procession of cars and bicycles, sponsored by activists from a group called Shutdown DC, slowly paraded through the streets of the capital to protest “an attack on the democratic process” by Trump and his “enablers,” according to its website. . .
ShutDown DC protesters hold a protest to promote continuous vote counting near the White House in Washington, DC on November 5, 2020 (Photo: AFP / Saul Loeb).
Most of the demonstrations in cities across the country have been peaceful and small, sometimes with only a few dozen people holding signs in the center of town, as Biden’s path to victory seems a bit safer than Trump’s, although either outcome is still possible.
On Wednesday, some demonstrations sparked clashes with the police. The rallies were triggered in part by Trump’s comments after Election Day Tuesday, in which he demanded a stop to vote counting and made unsubstantiated conspiratorial claims about voter fraud.
Police in New York City, Denver, Minneapolis and Portland, Ore., Reported that they had arrested some protesters, often on charges of blocking traffic or similar misdemeanors.
On the second floor of Atlanta’s State Farm Arena, county elections officials sat at six tables constantly processing a few thousand mail ballots remaining Thursday morning, some stopping just to order coffee.
On counting Republican and Democratic votes, observers took notes as officials sorted each batch of 400 votes one by one, ensuring that the signatures matched between the envelopes and the votes.
Protesters gather outside State Farm Arena during ballot counting on November 5, 2020 in Atlanta. (Photo: AP / Brynn Anderson)
Hoping to avoid the crowds on Election Day during the coronavirus pandemic, more than 100 million Americans cast their ballots during early voting this year, a record high.
The count in Atlanta was much calmer than in Phoenix, where a crowd of Trump supporters, some armed with rifles and pistols, gathered outside a counting center Wednesday after unsubstantiated rumors that Trump’s votes deliberately failed. were counted.
