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Outraged Donald Trump supporters have gathered at vote-counting centers in key states on the U.S. electoral battlefield as protests swept across the country.
“Stop the count!” they screamed in Detroit when the Trump campaign announced it had filed a lawsuit to stop the counting of votes in the Midwestern state that CNN and other major networks called for Joe Biden on Wednesday.
In Phoenix, Arizona, dozens of Trump fans chanted “stop the robbery” and “four more years” as they demanded a full recount of the ballots amid signs that they were regaining Democratic leadership in the state.
Meanwhile, thousands of protesters, mostly anti-Trump, flocked to cities from New York to Seattle across the United States, as elections remained undecided Thursday morning. Manhattan police arrested more than 50 protesters after a peaceful demonstration led to clashes.
The protests came as President Trump insisted without proof that there were major problems with voting and ballot counting, especially with votes sent by mail, and when Republicans sued in multiple states over the elections.
Post-election protests erupt in the US
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.
Phoenix protesters filled much of the parking lot at the Maricopa County Election Center, where sheriff’s deputies were guarding both the exterior of the building and the interior of the count.
In Trump clothes, members of the crowd chanted, “Fox News sucks,” angered that the network declared 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 remained inside the polling place while the ballots were processed and counted, and the procedure was streamed live online at all times.
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.”
In Portland, Oregon, which has been the scene of regular protests for months, Gov. Kate Brown called in the National Guard as protesters engaged in what authorities said was widespread violence in the city center, including breaking 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 throughout the decades, even in times of great crisis,” Governor Brown said in a statement. “We are all in this together.”
