Republican supporters protest outside Michigan, Arizona vote centres
- 05 Nov 2020
Gulf Today Report
A crowd of Donald Trump supporters converged on vote-counting centres in Detroit and Phoenix on Wednesday as the election result went against Republicans in these two key states.
After unsubstantiated rumors that votes for the Republican president were deliberately not being counted, dozens of angry supporters of US President armed with rifles and handguns, gathered outside an election centre in Arizona on Wednesday night.
A victory for Biden in Arizona would give the Democrat 11 electoral votes, a major boost in his bid to win the White House, while severely narrowing Trump's path to re-election, in a state the Republican won in 2016.
On Election night Fox News and the Associated Press called Arizona for Biden, even though only just over 70% of the vote had been counted, a move that infuriated Trump and his aides.
Some of the roughly 200 protesters, who were faced by a line of armed county sheriffs, chanted "Shame on Fox!". Some said they came out after a tweet from Mike Cernovich, a right-wing activist.
Rep. Paul Gosar, an Arizona Republican and staunch Trump supporter, joined the crowd, declaring: “We're not going to let this election be stolen. Period.”
A similar scene played out on Wednesday afternoon in downtown Detroit, where city election officials blocked about 30 people, mostly Republicans, from entering a vote-counting hall amid unfounded claims that the vote count was fraudulent.
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The protests echoed the "Brooks Brother riot" during the 2000 recount in Florida that ultimately handed the presidency to Republican George W. Bush. A crowd of blazer-clad Republican protesters stormed a building where a hand recount was underway in a heavily Democratic district, forcing poll workers to stop counting ballots.
However, observers from both major political parties remained inside the election center as ballots were processed and counted, and the procedure was live-streamed online at all times.