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D.The most tumultuous presidential election in recent U.S. history produced an unusual sight in the days following November 3: armed protesters outside polling centers in states where incumbent President Donald Trump is right behind his challenger Joe Biden. Counting center employees feel threatened.
It is a small minority, mostly Trump supporters, who are seen in front of the electoral centers not only with rifles and pistols, but often also with semi-automatic automatic weapons. The show is not only found in the right wing, near Trump. Left-wing armed activists have also been spotted.
There have been no accidents or hits so far. And carrying firearms outdoors is not prohibited in Arizona, Nevada and Michigan. But political analysts warn of a dangerous escalation that can at least be seen as intimidation and could easily turn into violence. “The more we see, the more it’s seen as a normal reaction – even if it’s not,” says Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a professor with a research focus on extremism at the American University of Washington, DC. “There is nothing normal about this. The potential for violence is normalized.”
Donald Trump armed supporters outside Maricopa County Registry Office where votes are counted
Those: AP / Dario Lopez-MIlls
There have been meetings with armed protesters outside the counting stations following Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations that the count was manipulated to his disadvantage and that the elections were “stolen” by the Democrats. Some of the gun bearers in front of the polling stations say they came to keep the peace.
Protesters: “You won’t get away with it”
“I’m here to protect a peaceful protest,” explains Keith Owen, armed with an assault rifle and a leg holstered pistol. His vest is full of ammunition. He is a veteran who served in Afghanistan and now lives in Arizona. On Friday he was one of about 100 Trump supporters outside an election center in Phoenix. Another military veteran, Travis Fillmore, says, “We just want them to know they’re not going to get away with anything. We want to ensure that all legal ballots are counted correctly. “
Electoral officials at many of these centers said staff felt intimidated by the martial sight. For example, protesters in Phoenix shouted “Stop the election workers!” And they asked for another four years for Trump in the White House. In Detroit, Michigan, they shouted “Stop The Theft”, “Make Elections Fair Again” and “We Love Trump”.
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The atmosphere in the electoral group is further loaded explosively by the messages on social media. In Georgia, a counting station employee went into hiding after being seen crumpling and throwing away a piece of paper in a video posted on Twitter.
The spoken commentary on the video stated that the man was upset about something. He tore up the postal vote and crumpled it. “If it’s not election fraud, I don’t know what election fraud is,” says the commentator.
Electoral Control in Fulham County investigated the incident and announced that the allegations were unrelated. The employee works in a department where postal voting documents are only opened and then submitted for evaluation. What can be seen in the video is sorting the slip of instructions on how to fill out postal ballots, Fulham County Electoral Director Richard Barron said. This is easy to understand from the fact that this instruction form is significantly smaller than the ballot paper and the employee clearly threw away a smaller sized piece of paper, as was his job.
“The question has been asked whether the employee in the video throws out any of these rumors,” Baron explained. “The answer is no, undeniably not.” The employee’s job was to operate a cutting machine and separate the outer envelopes of the electoral letter from the inner ones with his voice. The process is separate from the actual count.
Barron said the man was hiding with friends because he no longer felt safe in his home. “I expressed my concern that all this was happening to him because he wanted to be an election worker and was doing nothing but a good job.”
Two Virginia gunmen were arrested outside the Philadelphia Convention Center on Thursday. “They came to deliver a truck full of counterfeit ballot papers to town,” CNN reported, citing prosecutors. Ballots were counted in the center. The men are said to be members of the QAnon movement. Ballot details were not provided.
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