Top officials with the Michigan Republican Party and Donald Trump’s reelection effort in the state urged supporters to swarm a ballot-counting center in Detroit on Wednesday. And it appears the supporters did.
Observers said the call for pro-Trump forces to show up in person — a fairly obvious callback to the infamous “Brooks Brothers Riot” of the 2000 Florida recount — strained the legitimate ballot-observation process and created a rowdy crowd at the door. Video from the scene showed stand-offs with elections officials, chanting, and general disruption of the vote-counting process.
#BREAKING: Large, animated crush of “stop the count” protestors trying to push their way into TCF hall in #Detroit where ballots are being counted.
They’re being blocked by guards at the door.
Pizza boxes are pushed against the window to obstruct view. It’s tense. @NBCNews pic.twitter.com/zFhzd88skX
— Steve Patterson (@PattersonNBC) November 4, 2020
The Trump campaign on Wednesday announced that it would be filing a lawsuit alleging that poll challengers weren’t given full enough access to watch the ballot-counting process in Michigan. The campaign said it was seeking to suspend vote counting.
Around the same time, at the TCF Center in Detroit, Trump supporters heeded calls to rush the location.
“MICHIGAN REPUBLICANS! If you can get to the TCF Center in Detroit go NOW! We need people to watch the vote count,” Sam Ditzhazy, who claims to be a field director for Students for Trump, wrote on Twitter. “They are ‘finding’ votes for Joe. Republicans MUST hold the line.”
The assertions piggybacked on the President’s own false and misleading claims that Democrats were “stealing” the election — when in fact officials were simply counting ballots that had been cast legitimately but had not yet been tallied.
“Detroit election officials are currently refusing to let the public observe the counting process at the TCF center,” wrote Drew Thompson not long after Ditzhazy’s claim. Thompson is deputy state director for the Michigan division of Trump Victory, the joint fundraising group between the Trump campaign and Republican Party.
“They have padlocked the doors,” Thompson tweeted. “This is a disgrace to the democratic process.”
“Republican poll challengers blocked from entering the TCF Center in Detroit!” wrote Laura Cox, chair of the Michigan Republican Party. “This is egregious!”
In reality, according to multiple local reports, authorities had closed the doors because the room was at capacity.
Reporter Bisma Parvez shared video of several poll challengers seemingly chanting something — perhaps “stop the count,” which is what the Trump campaign has sued to do.
Poll challengers have started chanting something and circling a particular table. With @BridgeDet313 pic.twitter.com/US2Bhyt37H
— Bisma Parvez (@BismaPar) November 4, 2020
Former Michigan Democratic party Chair Mark Brewer told Crain’s Detroit Business that there were more than 100 Republican ballot challengers at the TCF Center.
“They are ill-trained, rude and they don’t know what they’re doing, but they are here,” he said.
Journalists on the ground showed the pandemonium outside of the vote-counting center — and the disturbances that some were causing inside the room, as well.
A fairly tense atmosphere here in the Wayne county vote counting hall in #Detroit. Police now controlling access to the hall as number of poll challengers is “well above capacity for both sides” according to an official #Election2020 pic.twitter.com/RvqyCDhqss
— Leo Lord-Jones (@leolordjones) November 4, 2020
Poll challengers began pounding on the windows at the Central Counting Board so now officials are taping up the windows. Reporting with @BridgeDet313 pic.twitter.com/bwyDq9gZcw
— Bisma Parvez (@BismaPar) November 4, 2020
At least one poll challenger, perhaps more, was ultimately removed from the room:
Poll inspectors cheer as a poll challenger is kicked out at Detroit’s Central Counting Board. Reporting for BridgeDetroit @BridgeDet313 pic.twitter.com/7I86xAi8ap
— Bisma Parvez (@BismaPar) November 4, 2020
They are desperate.
The Walking Dead, Season 11
Stop the counting when Biden is ahead??? What fools these mortals be.
I hope they kept the door firmly barred.
Cops. National Guard.
Arrest the fuckers. Every goddamned one of them. Charge them with disorderly conduct and anything else that might stick.
Get them before a judge and convicted and fined TODAY.