{"id":4178,"date":"2020-11-06T10:21:41","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T16:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=4178"},"modified":"2020-11-06T10:47:09","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T16:47:09","slug":"cronkite-news-presidential-ballots-still-being-counted-in-key-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2020\/11\/06\/cronkite-news-presidential-ballots-still-being-counted-in-key-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: Presidential ballots still being counted in key states"},"content":{"rendered":" <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1600\" data-attachment-id=\"4180\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2020\/11\/06\/cronkite-news-presidential-ballots-still-being-counted-in-key-states\/donaldtrumpprotest\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/donaldtrumpprotest.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1600\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"donaldtrumpprotest\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;A crowd gathers Thursday morning in front of Phoenix City Hall to support President Donald Trump. Ballots are still being counted in Arizona, where there\u2019s a tight race between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden. Photo by Megan Marples \/ Cronkite News&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/donaldtrumpprotest-1024x640.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/donaldtrumpprotest.jpg\" alt=\"donaldtrumpprotest\"   class=\"size-full wp-image-4180\" \/> <figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">A crowd gathers Thursday morning in front of Phoenix City Hall to support President Donald Trump. Ballots are still being counted in Arizona, where there\u2019s a tight race between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden. Photo by Megan Marples \/ Cronkite News<\/figcaption>\r\n<div class=\"h3-responsive font-weight-bold\">Vote counting anxiety rises as Trump-Biden race tightens in Arizona<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"date\">Friday, November 6, 2020<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"byline\">By Allie Barton and Megan Marples<\/div>\r\n<DIV class=source>Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n<DIV class=source-website><A \r\nhref=\"https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/\">cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nPHOENIX, Arizona \u2013 More than 100 supporters of President Donald Trump waved flags and chanted Wednesday night outside the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center, demanding that votes be counted. Inside the center, votes were, in fact, being counted.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nA second protest came Thursday morning, and others were planned for Thursday night and Friday by conservatives riled by <a href=https:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/our-work\/research-reports\/10-voter-fraud-lies-debunked>Trump\u2019s unsubstantiated but persistent claims of widespread voter fraud<\/a> that\u2019s denying him reelection. Across the country, similar protests have erupted over the 2020 election, which saw a record number of mail-in ballots.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nOutside Phoenix City Hall on Thursday morning, maskless Trump supporters decked out in Trump shirts, hats and American flags shouted and waved signs that read \u201cVotes cast after November 3 are illegal,\u201d despite no evidence of illegal votes being counted.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThe demonstrations come as the presidential race in Arizona tightens and controversy over whether this swing state and other states that are grinding through their vote counts, including Pennsylvania and Nevada, should be called for Trump or his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, before the official tallies are completed.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThe Sheriff\u2019s Office has erected a chain-link fence outside the tabulation center in case tensions get out of hand, and Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has become a national news media figure. Political historians in Arizona say the country has seen something like this before, just not quite in this way.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAs of Thursday night, Associated Press projections have Biden with 264 electoral votes and Trump with 214, with Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania among key states still up for grabs. In Arizona, where early results led Fox News and the Associated Press to declare Biden the winner, other major media organizations have hung back. Hobbs has urged caution, with nearly 302,000 votes left to count statewide, most of those in Maricopa County, Arizona\u2019s most populous.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nGov. Doug Ducey, a Republican and familiar Trump supporter, on Thursday <a href=https:\/\/twitter.com\/dougducey\/status\/1323900711139123200>tweeted his frustration<\/a>, saying \u201cNot so fast. The race has narrowed in #AZ considerably.\u201d\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Not so fast. The race has narrowed in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AZ?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AZ<\/a> considerably. 130,000 votes separate the candidates, with hundreds of thousands of votes yet to be counted, from all over the state. I&#39;ll say it again: Let&#39;s count the votes, and let the people decide rather than making declarations. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1WYhjChrtm\">https:\/\/t.co\/1WYhjChrtm<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Doug Ducey (@DougDucey) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DougDucey\/status\/1323900711139123200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 4, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAs of Thursday, evening, Biden\u2019s lead narrowed to about 46,000 votes more than Trump in Arizona, but the Maricopa County Elections Department still had 200,000 uncounted ballots, according to the Secretary of State\u2019s Office website. Only 2 percentage points separate the two.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThursday morning, about 50 protesters marched in front of Phoenix City Hall in an event dubbed Protect the Vote, which was organized by Arizona FreedomWorks, a conservative and libertarian advocacy group.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAlan Wirth of Scottsdale, a retired firefighter, was there because he has doubts about the election process.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cWe feel like the election integrity is not there,\u201d said Wirth, who supports Trump for his anti-abortion views. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing that a first world country like the United States could find itself in a place that would be like a banana republic, where the voting integrity is compromised.\u201d\r\n<p><\/p><div class=\"mt-1 mb-1\"><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8411603009680747\" data-ad-slot=\"6394965691\"><\/ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/div><p><\/p>\r\n<div class=\"h5-responsive sub\">The political past becomes the present<\/div>\r\nBen McJunkin, a law professor at Arizona State University, recalled a similar controversy in the 2000 presidential election, with the race too tight to call between Democrat Al Gore and President George W. Bush on election night. After protests by Republicans, Florida officials suspended a ballot recount and the issue went to the U.S. Supreme Court.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nBut there\u2019s a twist in the 2020 election furor, he said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cThe thing that makes this different, obviously, is we\u2019re not talking about a recount, but a first-time count,\u201d McJunkin said. \u201cThere are some pretty explicit claims of fraud that are being made without any sort of supporting information.\u201d\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nTammy Patrick, now senior adviser for the Democracy Fund, oversaw ballot counting at the Maricopa County Elections Department in the 2012 presidential election. Three days after that election, <a href=https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/11\/10\/us\/politics\/arizona-races-still-hang-in-the-balance-over-uncounted-votes.html>hundreds of thousands of provisional ballots<\/a> still had not been counted.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nShe said protesters with bullhorns gathered outside the Tabulation and Election Center chanting \u201cCount the vote! Count every vote!\u201d\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAs for the 2020 protesters, Patrick said, \u201cIt\u2019s hard to say whether or not people will get tired or if they\u2019re adding oxygen to the fire and will draw more individuals to their cause.\u201d\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<figure>\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/freedomofspeechzone.jpg\" alt=\"freedomofspeechzone\"  class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4186\" \/>\r\n<figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">After several dozen supporters of President Trump went to the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on Wednesday night, November 4, 2020, demanding to be let inside and asking to speak to County Recorder Adrian Fontes, workers erected fences in anticipation of more protests as counting continues. Photo by Franco LaTona \/ Cronkite News\r\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<div class=\"h5-responsive sub\">Taking precautions<\/div>\r\nLaw enforcement has been a presence at the demonstrations downtown. The Maricopa County Sheriff\u2019s Office was present during Wednesday night\u2019s protest outside the tabulation center. Several of the protesters were armed \u2013 Arizona gun laws allow open carry of weapons \u2013 and no one was arrested. Officers arrived in tactical gear before elections officials closed the building about 10:30 p.m., according to KTAR.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThe Sheriff\u2019s Office erected a chain-link fence around the tabulation center and marked a \u201cFreedom of speech\u201d zone where protesters could gather away from the entrance.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cPeaceful activities will be respected and protected. Acts of violence, threatening behaviors or criminal damage of property will not be tolerated,\u201d Sheriff Paul Penzone said in a statement.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nMcJunkin said he\u2019s not surprised that \u201cthe response has been more muted\u201d compared with protests over police brutality that have continued since May; nearly 20 people were arrested just a few weeks ago at a protest in Phoenix.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cThere\u2019s a tension between the (social justice) protesters and police from the outset that probably didn\u2019t exist in these protests yesterday,\u201d McJunkin said Thursday. \u201cThe political alignment is largely that the people who are supporting Trump tend to be supportive of police officers.\u201d\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<div class=\"embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9\">\r\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_Orc_rA8YmM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Cronkite News: <a href=https:\/\/youtu.be\/_Orc_rA8YmM>Newscast &#8211; November 5, 2020<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<div class=\"h5-responsive sub\">Conservative mistrust of vote counts<\/div>\r\nJed Smith, 24, is the development coordinator for FreedomWorks, which organized Thursday\u2019s Protect the Vote protest and distributed signs that read \u201cBiden Got Beat.\u201d His main concern was that swing states like Arizona were being called before all votes had been counted.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nHowever, Smith said the \u201cBiden Got Beat\u201d signs were a \u201ccheeky joke\u201d and don\u2019t mean his organization thinks Trump won Arizona, which has 11 electoral votes.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nTrump supporter Cheryl Nestico, 62, of Scottsdale, also voiced suspicions \u2013 but not about Arizona voting. Illegal votes aren\u2019t an issue here, she said, but they\u2019re a big problem in Pennsylvania, which has 20 electoral votes.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nIn an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany suggested that if Trump loses in Pennsylvania, the campaign will try to get ballots counted after Election Day thrown out by the Supreme Court, even if they were postmarked Nov. 3.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cWe believe every vote on Election Day should be counted, but it\u2019s those that arrive after Election Day that we are fighting,\u201d she said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAny mail-in ballot postmarked by Election Day is valid, according to the <a href=https:\/\/www.votespa.com\/Voting-in-PA\/Pages\/Mail-and-Absentee-Ballot.aspx>Pennsylvania Department of State\u2019s website<\/a>. Mail-in ballots, which accounted for 2.5 million of total ballots cast, can\u2019t be opened until Election Day.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nArizona voters have had the right to request a mail-in ballot for more than two decades, and in this year\u2019s primary election, nearly 9 in 10 voters voted by mail.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<div class=\"embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9\">\r\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oTpf1Yh8kZI?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Cronkite News Video by Alex Gaul and Casey Flanagan: <a href=https:\/\/youtu.be\/oTpf1Yh8kZI>Campaign Ads<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption><p><\/p>\r\nHobbs, the Arizona Secretary of State, assured voters that it\u2019s normal and legal to still count ballots several days after an election, and she encouraged those who still have doubts in the integrity of the election to watch the livestream of the ballot tabulation center. She has appeared on CNN to discuss what\u2019s happening and to dispel misinformation that ballots marked with Sharpie markers are invalid.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nEduardo Sainz, chief executive of Mi Familia Vota, a civic engagement organization focused on the Latino community, said he isn\u2019t worried the protests will affect election results. It is, however, an attempt to undermine the will of Arizona voters, he said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cAt this point, we must remain vigilant on the attacks to our democracy and we will continue to protect and invite our community to participate,\u201d Sainz said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThe suspense is killing us, announce a winner already\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAs vote-count anxiety permeates the country, McJunkin looks back to the election of 2000 for perspective: Bush wasn\u2019t declared the winner for more than five weeks after Election Day.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nHis biggest fear for the future is the amount of misinformation that\u2019s still circulating about the validity of the election process.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cIf enough people buy into misinformation or believe that things happen in ways that they don\u2019t, it leads to this sort of erosion and distrust of the institution itself,\u201d McJunkin said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BREAKING<\/a> Democrat Joe Biden wins Arizona, turning the state blue, AP reports. The national race is still too close to call. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/r8OtZXdRTw\">https:\/\/t.co\/r8OtZXdRTw<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eI576fcbCd\">pic.twitter.com\/eI576fcbCd<\/a><\/p>&mdash; azcentral (@azcentral) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/azcentral\/status\/1323898778739376136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 4, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAs of Thursday night, several news publications, including the <a href=https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/11\/05\/upshot\/arizona-election-call.html>New York Times<\/a>, CNN and Reuters, had yet to declare a presidential winner in Arizona.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nIn an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN Thursday afternoon, Hobbs said most Arizona counties were wrapping up their tabulation and that Maricopa County has until Tuesday to resolve any ballot disputes.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cI think that after today and tomorrow, we\u2019ll have a really, more clear picture on what Arizona looks like,\u201d Hobbs said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<STRONG>For more stories from Cronkite News, visit <A href=\"https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/?utm_source=referral&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=client\">cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A>.<\/STRONG>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<HR><EM>Note: This story originally <a href=\"https:\/\/cronkitenews.azpbs.org\/2020\/11\/05\/vote-counting-anxiety-rises-as-trump-biden-race-tightens-in-arizona\">appeared on Cronkite News<\/a>.  It  is published via a <A href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0\/\">Creative  Commons license<\/A>. Cronkite News is produced by the <A href=\"https:\/\/cronkite.asu.edu\/\">Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication<\/A> at <A href=\"https:\/\/www.asu.edu\">Arizona State University<\/A>.<\/EM><HR>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four days after the November 3 election, ballots are still being counted. Donald Trump&#8217;s supporters don&#8217;t like it.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,14],"tags":[4,42,46,75,788,56,53,55,85],"class_list":["post-4178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-politics","tag-4","tag-arizona","tag-cronkite-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-doug-ducey","tag-elections","tag-joe-biden","tag-native-vote","tag-republicans","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/donaldtrumpprotest.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-15o","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}