'Stop the count': Crowd tries to storm Detroit convention centre

The demonstrations come after President Trump filed a lawsuit in Michigan to stop the count

A group of “stop the count” protestors tried to storm their way into a Detroit convention centre where ballots are being processed, NBC News reports, with guards asking the crowd to get back and pizza boxes covering the window to obstruct view of the counting inside.

In video of the incident, posted by NBC News reporter Steve Patterson, a crowd can be seen outside the TCF Center, masks on and phones out, trying to surge into the building. In the chaos, a voice can be heard saying, “There’s a woman on the ground, just wait a minute."

An official steps out and announces he’s from the state health department, which is met with jeers from the crowd and a man audibly saying, “Oh my god,” in apparent dissatisfaction.

In another video posted shortly afterwards, protestors can be seen banging on windows outside the convention centre.

Follow election results live

According to the Detroit Free Press, the outrage began after a group of bipartisan poll watchers were not allowed to re-enter the counting room because officials said it was over capacity. Republicans in the group said being ejected meant those remaining inside were disproportionately Democratic, while others in the group noted that Democrats had been kept out too.

Laura Cox, chairman of the Michigan GOP, called the incident “egregious” and tweeted out a video from the demonstrations outside the event where the man filming suggests a delivery of mail-in votes was “pretty suspicious,” echoing a common, unsubstantiated concern that mail-in voting breeds voting fraud.

As of 4:25pm Eastern time, around when video of the incident was posted, there were 570 challengers total inside the TCF Center, including 227 Republicans, 268 Democrats, and 75 nonpartisan representatives, according to the Free Press.

Outside, a group of Trump supporters assembled and chanted, “Stop the count.”

Read more: When will we know the election result?

The president recently sued Michigan to stop vote counting there, and has made continued false claims about voter fraud and the integrity of the election. 

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel responded to the suit with a statement on Twitter, writing through a spokesperson that, “Michigan’s elections have been conducted transparently, with access provided for both political parties and the public, and using a robust system of checks and balances to ensure that all ballots are counted fairly and accurately.”