Organizers and residents of Philadelphia were one step ahead of Donald Trump’s call to “STOP THE COUNT.” Armed with boxes of mustard yellow hoodies with “Count Every Vote” printed across the chest, as well as street-sized banners with the same message, Philadelphia was prepared for the president’s false cries of voter fraud.
“While some including the president continue to spew baseless claims of fraud,” started Mayor Kenney at a Friday afternoon press conference, “claims for which his team has not produced one iota of evidence, what we have seen here in Philadelphia is democracy pure and simple.”
Pennsylvania’s decision to wait until Election Day to count mail-in ballots, coupled with an underfunded Postal Service during a pandemic, and the tendency of Democrats to favor mail-in ballots has made them a target of the President’s ire.
Senator Bernie Sanders predicted this would happen on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, as early as October 24. “Here is the fear, it could well be that at 10 o’clock on election night, Trump is winning in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. He gets on the television and says, ‘Thank you, Americans, for re-electing me, it’s all over’ but then the next day, mail-in ballots get counted and it turns out Biden won those states. At which point Trump says, ‘See, I told you the whole thing was fraudulent. I told you mail-in ballots are crooked.”
Bernie Sanders’ fears were right, and Philadelphia turned into a battleground of political ideologies. The main stage for the battle being the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where the city’s vote counting process is taking place.
On November 4, the day after Election Day, the Trump campaign announced a press conference outside of the convention center at 3:30pm featuring Eric and Lara Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Pam Bondi, and Corey Lewandowski. Once news of the conference became public, organizers mobilized to 12th and Arch streets to protest and disrupt this press conference. It was easy for protesters to mobilize at the convention center, because a group of protesters from Refuse Fascism had been sitting-in by Independence Hall from 9am to 5pm every day for weeks.
A handful of protesters armed with signs reading “Count Every Vote” and “Trump/Pence Out Now” coalesced upon the block between Reading Terminal Market and the convention center. These few dozen protesters, along with Councilmember Helen Gym, and a media spectacle atmosphere forced the Trump campaign to relocate their press conference to a less populated area, the airport.
“Philadelphia, unfortunately, has a reputation for voter fraud,” said Rudy Giuliani at the relocated press conference. Giuliani went on to claim that “people are being bussed in from Camden” and that “dead people are voting.” These claims are unsubstantiated. The Washington Post searched through 14 million ballots from 2016 and 2018 and only found 372 possible instances of “voter fraud” or “double voting,” less than 0.0025%.
Months of attempting to discredit mail-in ballots by the Trump campaign can be regarded as disingenuous as Trump himself voted via mail-in ballot.
As Team Trump made their case, hundreds of protesters gathered at City Hall for a variety of reasons. A rally to “Count Every Vote” began on the North side of City Hall at 5pm, then a rally to free activist Anthony Smith took place on the South side of Broad Street at 5:30pm.
The “Bearded Ladies Cabaret” box truck blasted protest anthems and Philly favorites as more than 1,000 Philadelphians congregated at City Hall for their aligned causes. Philadelphia Police followed closely, and the National Guard stood idly by. Drumlines, Philly Elmo, banners, box trucks and bicycles escorted a massive group around City Hall and down Market Street towards Independence Hall.
The palpable energy from Wednesday night’s protest carried into Thursday and Friday.
8am Thursday morning, a protest in favor of Trump labeled “Protect the Vote” kicked off. The conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks tweeted out “WE NEED ALL PATRIOTS TO MEET AT THE PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION CENTER.”
Thursday morning a few Trump supporters migrated to the convention center to mostly stand around until 10am, when Corey Lewandowski and about two dozen Trump supporters arrived on the scene. Bondi and Lewandowski addressed the crowd and media, showing an injunction to enter the convention center to observe the counting of the ballots. This move temporarily halted the counting of votes, but ultimately proved to be a feeble attempt of obstruction, as poll watchers already have access to the convention center and the ballot counting process is on a 24-hour live stream.
By the time Lewandowski left the convention center on Thursday, Arch Street had become a full-fledged block party. “Antifascist Gritty” danced among mailboxes, activist O.G. Law drove his ‘prison van’ to 12th and Arch streets and set up his DJ equipment, and hundreds turned out to party as protest.
Trump supporters were outnumbered at every juncture. A couple dozen people dressed in MAGA apparel were outshined by costumes, music and an undeniably energetic atmosphere. Thursday’s protest began at 8am and wrapped up around 10pm, passionate stragglers stood on the corner by Panera Bread until 11pm, fully aware that Friday would be more of the same.
“Philadelphia has got a rotten history on election integrity,” tweeted the president on Friday morning following the election, quoting Stuart Varney, whom he was watching on Fox Business.
Friday, protesters from both sides of the aisle gathered at the convention center for a third straight day of discourse.
Bongos, Gritty helmets, accordions, two turntables and a microphone were Philadelphia’s instruments of protest. That same Friday morning, Joe Biden took the lead in Pennsylvania’s electoral race.
In a Friday afternoon press conference Kenney said, “What we’ve seen on the streets outside of this convention center was not anger or contention, but music, dancing and celebration … the voters and residents of Philadelphia ensured that our city shined as an example of how to run an election correctly.”
Kenney also stated that he believed Joe Biden would be the next president and that “what [Trump] needs to do is frankly put his big boy pants on and acknowledge the fact that he lost.”
As of Friday, several thousand ballots were still yet to be counted in Philadelphia. The president of Philadelphia City Council, Darrell Clarke, told Grid that he expects there to be “around 710,000 total ballots” putting voter turnout higher than 2016, but not as high as 2008.
City centers in swing states ended up being focal points for the 2020 election. Cities like Detroit, Atlanta and Philadelphia were instrumental in electing Biden.
From name drops in debates to claims of rampant voter fraud, Philadelphia has been a primary factor in the 2020 election. Pennsylvania’s swing state status, coupled with Philly’s reputation has made for a whirlwind of electoral antics, but the people of Philadelphia were prepared.
Saturday afternoon, Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral college votes, along with the American presidency were called for Joe Biden. The people of Philadelphia came out to the streets, thousands congregated at City Hall to dance and celebrate the end of Donald Trump’s presidency. As of November 7, there were still 30,000 ballots to be counted in Philadelphia, most of which are expected to be for Joe Biden who won more than 80% of the city’s vote.
