Mike and Wetonia Houlihan listen to speakers during a protest at the Clark County Election Center in North Las Vegas Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020 | 2 a.m.
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Competing protests gathered in front of a Clark County Election Department center, with one side proclaiming its candidate the winner and the other wanting the vote count to proceed.
Several dozen flag-waving President Donald Trump supporters huddled peacefully Wednesday night in front of the North Las Vegas warehouse, where workers continue to tally votes that will help determine if their candidate will remain in the White House for another term.
As one of the handful of states that hasn’t yet turned red or blue on U.S. Electoral College maps, Nevada’s six votes could hand Joe Biden the highest office in the land.
Ballots continue to be counted here as the former vice president's razor-thin lead in Nevada stood at fewer than 8,000 votes Wednesday.
The Make America Great Again crowd was part of a multistate movement named #stopthesteal in which organizers and followers suggest that Trump has won reelection, alleging unproven conspiracies about widespread voter fraud by Democrats, polling station workers and the “fake news” media.
Early Wednesday morning, hours after the polls closed across the country, Trump called for vote counting to stop in several states, proclaiming himself the winner and alleging that if he loses, it would be because of fraud.
He’s offered no evidence for the alleged intrigue. But as Biden’s path to 270 electoral votes became clearer Wednesday, Trump supporters have also converged on vote-counting centers in Michigan and Arizona. Republicans have filed suit in various states over the election.
The pro-Trump group grew from about a dozen to 50 with sympathizers in MAGA gear waving Trump campaign flags. North Las Vegas Police had blocked the parking lot, and the supporters gathered on a public sidewalk overlooking the warehouse.
“President Trump has won,” said Rebecca Gandara, who stood with her friend Lisa Maims, whom she befriended last presidential election season. “He won Nevada. President Trump four more years.”
Gandara said she didn’t believe votes were being counted. “I would bet my life there’s no people in there,” she said about the warehouse.
Maims said she heard from a friend who told her about “illegals” brought in to vote on Tuesday and some evidence that they were sending to Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney. Voter fraud in the U.S. is very rare, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
Gandara railed against Gov. Steve Sisolak and the COVID-19 restrictions, but also spoke about being eager to vote when she awoke at 5:30 a.m. to vote red across the board on Tuesday. “I’m American and I love President Trump,” she said. Democrats, she added, are “the party of rioters, looters and hate. We don’t hate, we love everybody.”
They went on peacefully to listen to event organizers Courtney Holland and conservative activist Michael Coudrey, who gave examples of what he called voter fraud and spoke about taking the country back.
They said Wednesday’s event was to “plant a seed” and to prepare for more such demonstrations.
After hearing about the pro-Trump protest, a liberal group organized its own demonstration, with participants chanting, “count every vote!”
Both sides kept a substantial distance between each other and didn’t direct their attention at each other.
Valeria Villaseñor, 20, voted in her first presidential election this year.
"I feel like every vote matters,” she said, adding that she’d voted for Biden. “No one should be mad just because the other is losing.”
Meanwhile, from New York City to Seattle, thousands of demonstrators turned out to demand that every vote be tallied.
In Portland, Oregon, which has been a scene of regular protests for months, Gov. Kate Brown called out the National Guard as demonstrators engaged in what authorities said was widespread violence downtown, including smashing windows. Protesters in Portland were demonstrating about a range of issues, including police brutality and the counting of the vote.
In New York, hundreds of people paraded past boarded-up luxury stores on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, and in Chicago, demonstrators marched through downtown and along a street across the river from Trump Tower.
Similar protests — sometimes about the election, sometimes about racial inequality — took place in at least a half-dozen cities, including Los Angeles, Houston, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and San Diego.
