Daily US Times: Dozens of supporters of President Donald Trump converged on a vote-counting centre in Arizona, a key battleground state, as election staff continued to plough through uncounted ballots with local sheriff’s deputies posted outside.
The protesters, some of whom were carrying weapons, according to the local TV network ABC 15 Arizona, briefly attempted to push inside the centre on Wednesday evening before being asked to leave. They appeared to be a mixture of the Republican President’s supporters and several far-right figures familiar at demonstrations in the state.
Arizona has been called by some media outlets for the Democratic candidate Joe Biden, who holds a slim lead in the state. But Trump campaign has tried to insist it has the votes to overtake Biden. According to the most recent tally, Biden has a 69,000 lead in the state.
In contrast to pro-Trump protests witnessed in Pennsylvania and Michigan, where Trump supporters called for vote counts to be halted, protesters in Phoenix have been chanting “Stop the steal!” and insisting remaining ballots be tabulated.
The situation in Arizona has been complicated by the decision by Associated Press and Fox News – whose assessments are used by the Guardian – to call the state for Joe Biden on Wednesday when there were still hundreds of thousands of votes to be counted.
On Wednesday night, with the Democratic White House challenger’s lead narrowing in the state, a newly tallied batch of 74,000 votes from Maricopa county, benefiting Trump 59% to 41%, were released.
However, the remaining votes to be counted mainly come from the largely Democratic Pima county, which is expected to benefit Biden.
You may read: Biden one state away from projected election victory
