In downtown Portland, Oregon, they shouted, "Count every vote!” At the Detroit convention center, they urged those tallying ballots to stop. And outside a Philadelphia vote-counting site, they said they just wanted to watch.
In a year defined by U.S. protests — for women’s rights and Black lives, against coronavirus lockdowns and police brutality — the presidential election brought even more demonstrators to the streets across America this week as days passed without a clear winner.
As former Vice President Joe Biden appeared to gain ground over President Donald Trump in the race to reach 270 electoral votes, protests broke out in hotly contested areas including Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Phoenix, where demonstrators said they were convinced the election was being stolen — a baseless claim that has circulated fiercely on social media, including on Trump's Twitter feed.