In battleground Arizona, 2 sides react to projected Biden victory

It wasn't the decisive walloping Democrats were hoping for.

And, in a country that has grown used to media organizations projecting presidential winners on Election night or soon after, the lengthy counting process of large numbers of mail-in ballots this year created an unsettling days-long purgatory for both sides.

But the Associated Press, CNN, NBC, Fox News and other media outlets projected Joe Biden to be the 46th president of the United States, Nov. 7, after it became clear he would win Pennsylvania and Nevada, although the final tally in Arizona continued to tighten and the results in Georgia appeared headed for a recount.

In a deeply politically polarized nation, Biden cast himself throughout his campaign as someone who could heal Americans' divisions, and he kept on this message in his victory speech the night of Nov. 7.

"I ran as a proud Democrat. I will now be an American president. I will work as hard for those who didn't vote for me – as those who did," Biden said. "Let this grim era of demonization in America begin to end – here and now."

Biden's lofty sentiment, though, will likely prove to be immensely difficult to implement in practice. That much was clear on the ground in presidential battleground Arizona, where supporters of President Trump gathered outside a county elections office to push for a faster count of the votes when it appeared the state would be crucial, and to decry Biden's victory as illegitimate when results from other states ultimately tipped the balance.

At the Maricopa County Tabulation Center in Phoenix, Trump supporters spent night after night crowded into a parking lot chanting things like "stop the steal" and "count the legal votes."

Abel Belgian, one of the protesters, said he and others present at the office were "standing for democracy."

"We're standing here for a fair and honest election," he said on Nov. 6. "There's been too many irregularities that have been found such as the Sharpies that randomly popped up. There's been errors that have now been reported in Michigan. There's dead people casting ballots."

The Sharpie issue Belgian referred to has to do with reports circulating from social media users claiming their ballots had been invalidated because they were given Sharpie markers to fill out their ballots at polling places. However, Arizona election officials have said voting with a Sharpie would not, in fact, result in an invalidated ballot. And in Michigan, Politifact found that a viral tweet purporting to show more than 14,000 votes had been cast by dead people in the Detroit area was not factual.

"According to the state's voter database, several of the individuals on the list are shown as never having cast an absentee ballot, and at least one woman listed seems to still be alive," Politifact said.

Even so, others present at the elections office protest continued to cast doubt on the election results across the country and in Arizona.

Cordie Williams, a chiropractor and pro-Trump public speaker from California who spoke at Temecula City Hall last month, was also at the Maricopa County elections office in Nov. 7; Williams cast suspicion on who appeared to be elections office workers taking out trash bags.

"Who knows if those are ballots right there?" he said. "I wouldn't be surprised."

Jake Angeli, another supporter of the president, questioned the outcome of the election on Nov. 7 after the major networks had called the race for Joe Biden.

"How is it that the most unpopular candidate in history got the most votes out of any president in history?" Angeli wondered.

There were not many counter-protesters at the elections office over the days of pro-Trump protests, but some showed up on Nov. 7 after Biden had been declared the victor, and tensions ran high.

"It's been pretty bad, I'm not gonna lie," said Jackie Valencia, one pro-Biden protester. "I don't get why people try changing other people's opinions. No one 's gonna change. And I feel like Trump's caused this big divide between us ... it's just so ridiculous how you either hate Trump or you love him. There's just so much hate. From both sides, I'm not gonna lie."

There may, however, be hope yet that the two divided sides can come together.

The small group Valencia was with was engaged for a period of time in heated verbal confrontations with opposing protesters, but armed pro-Trump demonstrators who said they walked over to Valencia's group to keep the peace between the two sides kept their word - they defused some of the tempers and even engaged in conversation with their supposed opponents.

Linnea McCann, who showed up to the protest with a pride flag, said she had come with the hope of being able to have honest dialogue with those she disagreed with, and found success.

"I'm not scared," she said. "Everyone here has been really nice to me, and I think that there's this idea in America that there has to be tenson all the time between everyone on each side and although I fundamentally disagree with the political views of pretty much everybody here in most ways, I can still talk to them and have open, civil conversations with them."

Will Fritz can be reached by email at [email protected].