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Protesters across the United States, most aligned with Democrats and progressives, turned out Wednesday to demand that officials “count all the votes.”
In New York City, thousands of people marched past bricked-up luxury stores on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue as the presidential race remained too close to call and ballots were still being counted in key states on the battlefield.
The march was largely peaceful, although police made at least 20 arrests after a smaller and noisier group began protesting police misconduct.
Similar protests took place in at least half a dozen cities, including Los Angeles, Seattle, Houston, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, and San Diego. The protesters gathered in front of the Dallas City Hall in Texas. In Chicago, protesters demanding a full recount marched through downtown and down a street across the river from Trump Tower.
Many of these events were organized by local groups affiliated with Protect the Results, a coalition of grassroots organizations and unions.
In Michigan, after a right-wing anti-lockdown group huddled in front of a vote counting site in Detroit, protesters marched to demand that officials complete the count.
Police arrested dozens of protesters in Minneapolis demanding action on a variety of issues, including surveillance, climate change and immigration, according to local media reports. The demonstration was reportedly planned before Tuesday’s elections. Arrests were also made in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon.
The demonstrations came as Donald Trump threatened to sue his way to the presidency, initiating lawsuits Wednesday to stop the counting of votes in three battle states. It is not clear that the challenges will alter the outcome of the elections.
Earlier Wednesday in Detroit, a small group of Donald Trump supporters descended on a counting center amid chants of “Stop the count!” Trump has repeatedly insisted, falsely, without evidence, that there are major problems with the counting of votes, and demanded that states he is in danger of losing stop counting ballots.
The Detroit protests began shortly before the Associated Press declared that Joe Biden had won Michigan.
Video filmed by local media showed angry people gathering outside the TCF Center and inside the lobby, with police officers lined up to prevent them from entering the counting area. They chanted “Stop the count!” and “Stop the voting!”
In Phoenix, Arizona, pro-Trump protesters, some of whom were armed, gathered outside the state capitol to demand the exact opposite. As Arizona officials continued to count votes, Joe Biden’s lead in the state narrowed. After several news organizations, including the Associated Press and the conservative Fox News, declared a victory for Biden in the battlefield state, protesters chanted “Shame on Fox.” Biden held an advantage in Arizona by approximately 79,000 voters, with 515,000 votes not counting.
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 that both parties and the public had access to the recount “using a robust system of checks and balances to ensure that all ballots are counted fairly and accurately.”
The lengthy task of counting this year’s flood of votes by mail had raised fears of widespread civil unrest, but that scenario has so far not played out.
On Tuesday night, scattered protests broke out after the vote ended, stretching from Washington DC to Seattle, but there was no significant violence.
Agencies contributed reporting
