U.S. Election 2020: Protesters gather in New York City to demand that every vote be counted.
New York:
Thousands of Joe Biden supporters marched in New York on Wednesday night to demand that every vote in the close presidential election be counted, as some Donald Trump supporters protested in Detroit to demand a stop in the count in the Key state of Michigan.
Protesters in New York were peaceful and spanned generations, with marchers making their way from Fifth Avenue to Washington Square Park in the heart of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village.
In New York’s Democratic stronghold, protesters were upbeat, but hesitant to call for their candidate Biden for now.
“We have to count every vote in this election,” said Sarah Boyagian, a member of the Protect The Results Coalition behind the protest under close police surveillance.
“Donald Trump claimed the election before every vote is counted and we are sending the message that this is not acceptable,” the 29-year-old told AFP.
John Fraser, 47, said he “feared Trump would overturn the vote.”
“I’m not sure Biden won, we have to wait until all the votes are counted,” the software developer said, adding, “I’m afraid democracy is hanging by a thread right now.”
Protests in Detroit outside a ballot processing center were much more tense, according to an AFP photographer and clips on social media.
Cries of “stop the count!” sounded in the city of Michigan – where US media declared Biden the winner – as Trump’s campaign announced a lawsuit to try to suspend the vote count, claiming his team had been denied proper access to observe the vote count.
Clips on social media showed protesters with raised fists prevented from entering the center by police.
With Michigan’s 16 electoral votes, Biden now has a total of 264 – six less than the magical 270 needed to win the U.S. presidency, according to the U.S. Network’s projections.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
