40°F
weather icon Mostly Clear

Clark County election protest raises tensions as police look on

Updated November 5, 2020 - 10:37 pm

A second night of protests on Thursday outside the Clark County Election Department attracted a large, vocal crowd claiming fraud in Nevada’s count.

The #StopTheSteal protest to fight against what organizers allege is “election fraud” began at 6 p.m. outside the election department office in North Las Vegas, and grew in size as the protest went on.

Protesters, many carrying American flags and Trump 2020 flags, gathered outside the Clark County Election Department to protest the ballot counting, yelling about voter fraud and illegal votes. At least one protester was seen walking around with a large yellow Proud Boys flag. Organizers asked people to share their experiences of witnessing voter fraud during the election.

Co-organizer Mike Coudrey said the Stop the Steal group’s Facebook page was taken down, citing misinformation of Facebook’s Terms of Service, which Coudrey said the group followed carefully.

“We want a fair and open and honest and transparent election and right now we are in the belief that we do not have that,” he said. “We feel this disenfranchises voters, that potentially our votes are not being heard.”

One counter-protester was seen waving a Democrat flag. He told police other protesters were trying to assault him. When a group approached him, a protester with a Women for Trump flag encouraged others to respect him even if they didn’t agree with him. A protester in a MAGA hat was also seen shining a strobe light into the eyes of the counter-protester and an ABC reporter.

A similar protest on Wednesday drew about 70 people to the election department while protests elsewhere in the nation demanding a halt to counting ballots led to safety concerns in several cities.

Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter.

THE LATEST