Vote-fraud fabulists descend on Phoenix to protest counts
If Biden wins Arizona, its role in his victory will carry symbolic weight
PHOENIX, ARIZ.— Corina and Chris Martinez could hear the Trump supporters coming down their street before seeing them.
“They didn’t like our signs,” Chris said Friday morning, referring to the family’s lawn signs in support of the Biden-Harris ticket, as well as Democratic Senate candidate Mark Kelly. “They’ve been flipping us off and giving us stuff for it.”
The Martinezes are lifelong Democrats who live in the modest, liberal-leaning Grant Park area just outside downtown Phoenix. They are among the Arizona voters — energized by a growing Democratic population and the memory of the state’s beloved former Republican presidential candidate John McCain — who put the state on a path to choosing the Democratic candidate for president for only the second time since the 1940s.
If Joe Biden wins Arizona and the presidency, as he appeared on track to do Friday, the state’s role will carry symbolic weight. Arizonans who were loyal to the principled brand of republicanism espoused by McCain, who often criticized Donald Trump and whose widow endorsed Biden, may prove crucial in repudiating the brutish and divisive governing style of the president.
On Friday, Phoenix found itself at the heart of the country’s deep divide, as a torrent of Trump supporters, from across the state and from as far as California, formed a massive demonstration in defiance of the vote counts taking place across the United States. Repeating claims Trump made without evidence that voter fraud has occurred in the 2020 election, hundreds of his supporters rallied outside the Maricopa County elections centre Friday demanding “stop the fraud,” and “legal votes matter.”
Hundreds of cars and trucks bearing Trump bumper stickers lined the streets of the Martinezes’ neighbourhood, which is near the elections centre. So the couple decided to play loud music saying “F--- Donald Trump.”
“We didn’t always vote Democrat; we voted John McCain in 2008,” Chris said. “But Donald Trump made it OK to be racist and divided the United States. As Abraham Lincoln said, a house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Protesters at the elections centre said they got news of the event from a number of different places, including conspiracy theory sources like Infowars and Instagramer Rogan O’Handley. A short-lived Facebook site called “Stop the Steal,” which has since been taken down by Facebook for attempting to incite violence, also attracted some of the demonstrators, who called the page’s removal censorship.
“Support for this president is completely unprecedented in our lifetime. People adore him,” said Chloe Castleberry, of Phoenix, who attended the protest with a sign reading “Smells like Voter Fraud.” She said there is no way, given what she has seen of support for Trump, that the vote count favouring Biden is legitimate. “We need to see where the fake ballots are coming in at,” she said.
Although there is no evidence of fraud taking place in the elections, Trump supporters like Castleberry cite right-wing “whistleblowers” who have been making allegations of vote tampering and dumping, as evidence that their democracy is under attack.
Many protesters repeated a debunked claim that in Arizona, votes made using a Sharpie pen, instead of a regular pen, were invalidated.
One group of four women drove six hours from Los Angeles for the rally. They said they believe Biden and the Democrats are trying to steal the election and are furious that Facebook and Twitter have taken steps to remove or correct posts claiming election fraud is taking place.
“These are very important things and for it to be censored, it’s ridiculous,” said Janelle Rivera. “Our democracy is on the line. Our freedom is on the line.”
A fence separated the protesters from the elections centre, and sheriffs stood at building entrances and at the perimeter of the protest. QR codes were posted inviting people outside the building to use them to watch the vote count happening over a webcast.
The demonstrations were spirited but peaceful, with participants kneeling multiple times in prayer, and taking hats off to sing the national anthem.