1,000 DOWNTOWN URGE EVERY VOTE BE COUNTED
Less than 24 hours after the polls for the general election closed in Illinois, at least 1,000 demonstrators gathered peacefully downtown Wednesday to demand that every vote be counted as President Donald Trump tries to stop key battleground states from counting votes.
The protest began and ended at the Daley Plaza, where organizers handed out signs reading “Stop Trump” and “Trump/ Pence Out Now,” and speakers addressed the crowd.
The crowd later marched on Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive but did not reach Trump Tower because the Wabash Avenue bridge is raised as a security measure.
A number of labor and progressive groups — ranging from the SEIU Healthcare, a health care workers’ union, and the Chicago Teachers’ Union to Grassroots Collaborative, a community engagement nonprofit, and Indivisible Chicago Alliance, a political activism group — came together to organize the event.
“Across this country, we fought for a fair and free election for people to have the right to cast their votes, whether it be through mail, early or on Election Day,” said Erica Bland- Durosinmi, executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare. “And we will not stop until every vote is counted.”
Protesters said they were motivated to make their voices heard, despite Joe Biden’s victory in Illinois, because of Trump’s attempts to stop vote- counting in other states.
“It’s like if in a sports game, one team said, ‘ Let’s stop now’ because they were winning,” said Lea Mira, a 14- year- old protester from Old Town. “It’s just not something you’d expect to hear from someone who’s supposed to be in charge . . . It’s very scary to see this happening on our country and what could come out of it.”