由于总统选举的计票仍在进行中，官员们说，计票员周四表示感到受到威胁，因为几个州爆发了零星的抗议活动，包括示威者聚集在计票站外要求停止计票，还有人呼吁继续计票。
在亚利桑那州，总统以微弱优势落后于前副总统乔·拜登，周三晚上和周四，一群戴着马加帽、挥舞特朗普竞选横幅和海报的人聚集在马里科帕县记录员办公室。周三，当治安官代表堵住入口时，抗议者开始高呼，“数一数选票!”和“我们想要特朗普。”
周四，工人们在马里科帕县记录员办公室的停车场周围竖起了临时围栏，希望能阻止抗议者。停车场的一个区域划出了“言论自由区”，供抗议者聚集。
“我们战斗到底。这是我们的阿拉莫，”美国众议员保罗·戈萨尔周三晚上在凤凰城对特朗普支持者的另一次集会说。
马特·约克/美联社
周三在底特律，特朗普支持者敲打TCF中心计票室的窗户，要求观察计票过程，并高喊“停止计票”，总统略微领先，随着时间的推移，领先优势逐渐缩小，并向有利于拜登的方向倾斜。
底特律警察局长妮可·柯克伍德·丹尼尔说，由于新冠肺炎协议规定的容量限制，一次只能允许一定数量的人进入该中心。选举挑战者，谁需要得到选举木板，轮流进出大楼。
据美国广播公司底特律分公司WXYZ的一名摄像师称，至少有一人被警察护送出计票室。然而，底特律警方告诉美国广播公司新闻，没有人在TCF中心的事件中被捕。
杰夫·科瓦尔斯基/法新社通过盖蒂图像
当天早些时候，亚利桑那州马科姆县的共和党人敦促特朗普的支持者去TCF中心，写着“全体起立!”在美国广播公司新闻获得的一封电子邮件中。
马特·约克/美联社
特朗普和拜登的支持者还在拉斯维加斯的克拉克县选举部门外举行了决斗集会，那里的票数相当。警方表示，集会大多是和平的，没有暴力或逮捕的报道。克拉克县选民登记员乔·格洛里亚对在计票站工作的员工的安全表示担忧。
“我可以告诉你，我的妻子和母亲非常关心我，但我们这里有安全保障，”格洛丽亚周四说。“我们有保护我们的执法人员。我担心我的员工的安全。我们正在采取措施，确保我们拥有必要的安全保障。”
密歇根州司法部长达纳·内塞尔周四在推特上表达了类似的担忧。
“亲爱的公众:请停止给我的员工打骚扰和威胁电话，”内塞尔在推特上说。“他们是善良、勤劳的公务员，只是在做他们的工作。让他们在不舒服的地方塞锐器从来都不合适&这是对我们国家现状的可悲评论。”
宾夕法尼亚州州长汤姆·沃尔夫(Tom Wolf)在周四发布的一份声明中表示，尽管选举官员受到威胁，但该州的每一张选票都将被计算在内。
“宾夕法尼亚州将清点每一张选票，任何恐吓都不会阻止我们市政当局的选举官员。作为一个国家和联邦，我们必须拒绝恐吓选举工作人员和阻止计票的企图。今天上午对我们选举的有计划的攻击是不民主的，所有当选官员都必须予以谴责。宾夕法尼亚州将准备保护我们的选举工作人员和我们的选票，”沃尔夫州长的声明中写道。
与此同时，据《NYPD》报道，周三晚上，纽约市至少有50人被捕，此前纽约警察局官员称，被捕者试图通过纵火和与曼哈顿警察发生冲突来“劫持和平抗议”。
数百名示威者走上曼哈顿街头，在第五大道游行时高喊“清点每一张选票”，但被特朗普大厦附近的大量警察阻挡。
NYPD还说，集会散去后，一群煽动者与警察发生冲突，并在曼哈顿格林威治村的街道上放火。
这NYPD他们还在推特上发布了一些照片，这些照片似乎是他们说在抗议中被没收的几把带刀刃的武器和M-80烟花。NYPD官员说，逮捕是因为拒捕、行为不检、非法集会和妨碍政府管理。
大卫·迪·德尔加多/盖蒂影像公司
俄勒冈州波特兰警方周三晚上宣布发生骚乱，称市区爆发了“大规模暴力事件”。官员们动员国民警卫队帮助该市恢复和平。
警方称，波特兰至少有11人被捕，其中一名男子持有一支附有全套弹药的步枪。当局表示，这名武装男子还穿着带有弹道板的战术背心，据称有简易爆炸装置、一把刀和几罐喷漆，并涉嫌向警察投掷莫洛托夫鸡尾酒。
杰西卡·麦高恩/盖蒂影像公司
周四上午，特朗普在推特上发布了“停止计票”，他的律师在摇摆州密歇根州、宾夕法尼亚州和佐治亚州提起诉讼，质疑计票，理由是选举挑战者无法进入计票地点。
拜登在周三的一次演讲中说，“现在每一张选票都必须被计算在内。没有人会夺走我们的民主，现在不会，将来也不会。”
蒂莫西·克莱里/法新社通过盖蒂图像
保守派政治行动委员会茶党爱国者公民基金(Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund)通过其网站恳求总统的支持者参加计划于周四在亚特兰大、凤凰城、底特律和费城举行的集会。周四，哈里斯堡的宾夕法尼亚州国会大厦举行了一场号称“停止偷窃”的集会。
Sporadic protests erupt as anxiety grows over presidential vote count
With the presidential election voting count still in progress, officials said ballot counters expressed feeling threatened on Thursday as sporadic protests have broken out in several states including ones with demonstrators gathered outside tallying sites demanding a stop to the counting, and others calling for a continuation.
In Arizona, where the president is narrowly trailing former Vice President Joe Biden, a group of people wearing MAGA hats and waving Trump campaign banners and posters converged on the Maricopa County Recorder's Office Wednesday evening and Thursday. As sheriff's deputies blocked the entrance on Wednesday, protesters began chanting, "Count the vote!" and "We want Trump."
Workers erected a temporary fence around the parking lot at the Maricopa County Recorder's Office on Thursday, hoping to keep protesters at bay. A "freedom of speech zone" was marked off in an area of the parking lot for protesters to gather.
"We're fighting to the bitter end. This is our Alamo," U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar told another gathering of Trump supporters in Phoenix Wednesday night.
In Detroit on Wednesday,Trump supportersbanged on the windows of a ballot-counting room at the TCF Center, demanding to observe the tally process and chanting "stop the count" as the president held a slight lead that narrowed as the night wore on and tilted in Biden's favor.
Due to capacity limits prompted by COVID-19 protocols, only a certain number of people are allowed inside the center at once, Detroit police Sgt. Nicole Kirkwood said. Election challengers, who needed to be approved by theelectionboard, were rotated in and out of the building.
At least one person was escorted from the ballot-counting room by police, according to a videographer from Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ. However, Detroit police told ABC News that no one was arrested in the incident at the TCF Center.
Earlier in the day, the Macomb County, Arizona, GOP urged Trump supporters to go to the TCF Center, writing "all hands on deck!" in an email obtained by ABC News.
Trump and Biden supporters also held dueling rallies outside the Clark County Election Department in Las Vegas, where the vote tally was running neck and neck. Police said the rallies were mostly peaceful and there were no reports of violence or arrests. Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria expressed concern over the safety of his employees working at the vote-counting site.
"I can tell you that my wife and my mother are very concerned for me, but we have security here," Gloria said on Thursday. "We have law enforcement who are protecting us. I am concerned about the safety of my staff. We're putting measures into place to make sure that we have the security that's necessary."
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel took to Twitter on Thursday to air similar concerns.
"Dear members of the public: Please stop making harassing & threatening calls to my staff," Nessel tweeted. "They are kind, hardworking public servants just doing their job. Asking them to shove sharpies in uncomfortable places is never appropriate & is a sad commentary on the state of our nation."
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said in a statement he released on Thursday that every vote in the state would be counted despite threats against election officials.
"Pennsylvania is going to count every vote and no amount of intimidation will stop our dedicated election officials in our municipalities. As a country and a commonwealth, we must reject efforts to intimidate election workers and prevent votes from being counted. The planned attacks on our elections this morning are undemocratic and all elected officials must denounce them. Pennsylvania will be prepared to protect our election workers and our votes," Gov. Wolf's statement read.
Meanwhile, at least 50 people were arrested in New York City on Wednesday night after New York Police Department officials alleged those arrested attempted to "hijack peaceful protests" by setting fires and clashing with officers in Manhattan, according to the NYPD.
Several hundred demonstrators took to the streets of Manhattan, chanting "count every vote" as they marched on Fifth Avenue, but were blocked by a heavy police presence near Trump Tower.
The NYPD also said that after the rally dispersed, a group of agitators clashed with police officers and set small fires in the streets in Greenwich Village in Manhattan.
TheNYPDalso tweeted photos of what appeared to be several bladed weapons and M-80 fireworks they said were confiscated at the protests. NYPD officials said arrests were made for resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly and obstruction of government administration.
Police in Portland, Oregon, declared a riot Wednesday night when they said "widespread violence" erupted in the downtown area. Officials mobilized the National Guard to help restore peace to the city.
At least 11 people were arrested in Portland, including one man who was in possession of a rifle that had a full magazine of ammunition attached, police said. Authorities said the armed man was also wearing a tactical vest with ballistic plates and allegedly had an improvised explosive device, a knife, and cans of spray paint and is suspected of throwing a Molotov cocktail at police officers.
On Thursday morning, Trump tweeted, "Stop the Count" as his lawyers filed lawsuits in the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia challenging vote-counting on the grounds that election challengers lack access to locations where ballots are being tallied.
In a speech on Wednesday, Biden said, "Now every vote must be counted. No one is going to take away our democracy from us not now, not ever."
The Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund, a conservative political action committee, implored supporters of the president to attend rallies planned for Thursday in Atlanta, Phoenix, Detroit and Philadelphia, via their website. A rally billed as a "Stop the Steal" event was held Thursday at the Pennsylvania Capitol building in Harrisburg.
