Over the weekend, former Vice President Joe Biden was elected as the 46th president of the United States, but some people in Northern Nevada took to the streets to protest the election results.
On Saturday, more than a hundred people gathered in the cold. Some chanted, “Stop the steal,” and many cars drove by honking in support. A few wore the letter “Q” signifying their support of the controversial QAnon conspiracy theory. The Sierra Nevada Ally also identified members of the Proud Boys movement, a designated hate group, according to Southern Poverty Law Center.
Demonstrators echoed Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that mail-in ballots are being tampered with or thrown away, and they distrust that a majority of the mail-in ballots being counted after the election were cast for Joe Biden. Demonstrators also argued, the media prematurely and inaccurately called Biden the winner.
The Associated Press only confirms a winner, in any race, when there’s no mathematical path for the other candidate to win.
But for Alex Sharples of Reno, from what he can see, Trump has more support in Nevada than Biden.
“I don’t buy it. I mean, I’ve gone to both [of] Trump’s rallies when he came here. I’ve gone to a couple of the other rallies to see Mike Pence or Don Jr. when he came — thousands of people,” Sharples said.
While multiple Republicans held campaign events in Northern Nevada, Biden’s campaign decided not to, due to the pandemic and caps on gatherings.
Demonstrators returned to the capital on Sunday but the group was a lot smaller. A couple dozen people gathered in the freshly fallen snow, waving Trump flags and sporting MAGA merch.
Many demonstrators KUNR spoke with said they didn’t like that they received mail-in ballots when they didn’t ask for one. Along with some other states, Nevada law required ballots to be sent to every registered voter in the state this election.
Josh Groth of Carson City said Americans should have to work hard to vote. He also supports requiring voters to show ID and cast their ballot in person to prevent voter fraud.
“Doing those things would get rid of a lot of the angst, and there wouldn’t be this argument that is necessitating this protest right now if there were better voting processes,” Groth said.
Nevada doesn’t require voters to show ID; the ACLU argues it is a form of voter suppression.
Nevada’s Attorney General Aaron Ford has said there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud. There are several safeguards in Nevada to prevent fraud, including signature verifications and unique barcodes. Ford has also said if voter fraud does occur, his office will prosecute.
In Nevada, Biden currently has a lead of over 34,000 votes.
Lucia Starbuck is a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project.
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