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- At least 30 people were arrested in lower Manhattan during protests as states are still tallying election results.
- Some protesters had set fires and clashed with police, WABC reported.
- Videos posted online showed police tackling and arresting protesters.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Protests have erupted across the country to demand a fair count of votes as several states await tallies to determine who will win the 2020 presidential election.
At least 30 people have been arrested in lower Manhattan in relation to protests in New York City, a New York Police Department spokesman told Business Insider.
—Sydney Pereira (@sydneyp1234) November 5, 2020
Gothamist reporter Sydney Pereira posted a video on Twitter that showed NYPD officers on bikes tackling and arresting a group of protesters.
WABC reported that some protesters had set fires and clashed with police, but the demonstrations were peaceful until then.
—NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) November 5, 2020
In a statement on their Twitter, NYPD said the people arrested "attempted to hijack a peaceful protest by lighting fires, throwing garbage and eggs in Manhattan."
The protests started following President Donald Trump's re-election campaign said they would file lawsuits to stop vote counts in several states where votes are underway.
Trump has falsely claimed that there is an effort to "steal" the election from him as more votes are counted, specifically absentee ballots that favor his opponent Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
In Detroit, vote challengers clashed with election officials at the TCF Center where ballots were being tallied. Those clashes also came after Trump's reelection campaign filed a suit in Michigan to stop counting votes in the state "until meaningful access" is granted "to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law.