US election 2020: Protest marches kick off amid mail-in vote controversy
Protesters have taken to the streets of America as results of the US presidential election remain uncertain.
Opinion
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Sportsbet may have paid out on Joe Biden, but that does not mean the fight is over for Donald Trump.
As the first protest marches over the contested US presidential election kicked off in Manhattan, both the Biden and Trump camps were confident that they would be the eventual victors in what is looking to be the most contested race since 2000’s race between Al Gore and George W Bush was decided by the Supreme Court.
The problem for the Trump camp is that often controversial absentee and mail-in votes cast before the election keep turning up and overwhelming the waves of Republican voters who turned up on the day.
States along the northern tier of the Midwest including Wisconsin and Michigan – which looked like early Trump wins – have fallen to Biden, leaving Trump a narrow, but not impossible, path to victory.
Additionally, an error in the count in Arizona, which was called early by Fox News much to the consternation of the White House, has given further hope to the Trump camp that its critical electoral votes could shift to the Republican count, currently sitting on 214.
In Manhattan Wednesday afternoon, amidst boarded up storefronts along Fifth Avenue, thousands of anti-Trump protesters marched past a blue wall of police, chanting “This is what democracy looks like!” – ironically while carrying signs reading “Abolish capitalism!” and touting the Socialist Alliance.
Elsewhere in the country demonstrators burned American flags (Portland, Oregon) and marched down the street yelling, “No borders! No walls! No USA at all!” (Denver, Colorado).
Among New York’s small community of Trump supporters, meanwhile, the mood was pessimistic verging on dire.
The owner of one boutique bottle shop on Manhattan’s Upper East Side who asked – for obvious reasons – to remain anonymous, said, “I’m sick to my stomach over this. It’s being stolen before our very eyes.”
It’s a sentiment being echoed by Trump supporters across the country who worry that in Democrat-controlled states, the process may be being manipulated.
In Pennsylvania, the Democrat Attorney-General tweeted that there would be enough votes to tip the state to Biden even before election day, while in Detroit, Michigan, authorities blocked windows which allowed protesters chanting “Stop the count!” to observe the process.
But it is not all bad news for the Republicans.
Tuesday’s election saw the party hold the Senate and make big gains in the House of Representatives, leaving Democrats flummoxed that they were not able to flip one seat in the lower house.
“It’s a dumpster fire”, one legislator told US website Politico.
This means that not only did fears voters would repudiate the party as well as Trump not materialise, but that Democrat efforts to increase the number of Supreme Court justices will also be stalled.
What’s more, some 68.2 million Americans cast their vote for Trump – far more than 2016’s 62.9 million.
Even if Trump departs the political scene, his voters will remain. As will their demand for policies that speak to their concerns, and not just that of the political class.
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