While the president’s campaign lobbies to stop the counting of votes in pivotal swing states, people are protesting across the country to make sure that counting continues.
In San Diego, two separate protests on Wednesday called for the continuation of vote counting in crucial states in the presidential election. One in Poway was non-partisan, with protestors asking all valid votes to be counted, regardless of outcome. Another in downtown San Diego focused on support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
“Really the point here is we don’t want a coup," said Green Valley resident Tristan Higgins, one of the protestors in Poway. "We really don’t want anyone declared a winner before the votes are counted. We don’t want any vote not to matter. That’s why none of these signs say Trump or Biden.”
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Another protest planned by the group “Protect the Results: San Diego” was canceled on Wednesday, after organizers announced they were pleased that vote counting was going ahead as planned in the pivotal states.
On Wednesday evening, a protest in support of the Black Lives Matter movement had been planned days in advance of Tuesday’s election.
Mattique Gray, aged 25 who identifies as Black, says they decided to come out to the protest to support communities they feel have been hurt by the Trump administration.
“We need to come together now more than ever. Everything is so aggressive right now, just with politics, social media, now is just a good time to come together and show our strength more than anything,” said Gray.
More than a hundred people came out for the protest, which was accompanied by a heavy police response. They marched to the waterfront where speakers called for every vote to be counted in this year’s election.
And for changes to be made to the treatment of black and brown people in the country, regardless of who’s in the oval office.
