Boston 'Protect The Results' Rallies Demand All Votes Be Counted

BOSTON (CBS) – While the nation waits for the final results of the presidential race, local organizations held rallies in Boston on Wednesday calling for every ballot cast to be counted.

Check: 2020 Election Results

One group met at the Park Street station T stop then marched to the State House to join a "Protect the Results" rally Wednesday afternoon. Hours later, hundreds marched from Nubian Square in Roxbury to Copley Square, saying they want to make their voices heard until the election is decided.

"A lot of different groups coming together with the theme of count the votes and protect the votes, because right now the president is claiming victory, he is saying he won and to stop counting the votes," Carl Dix, the co-initiator of "Refuse Fascism," told WBZ-TV. "At the end of the rally, I want people to very clearly get that we are in a fight to make sure that this election does not get stolen."

Dix doesn't want it to end there.

"I want people to show a determination to not just come out one time to say that, but to stay in the streets," he said.

The ACLU of Massachusetts and the NAACP's Boston branch held a "Count Every Vote" rally on Boston Common at 3:30 p.m. Newly re-elected Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey was there.

Markey said President Donald Trump's calls to stop the count before millions of battleground states have been tallied is based in fear.

"We know the president began a concerted effort months ago to disable the post office so that there could be a cloud cast over the mail-in ballots all across the United States of America," Markey said.

Demonstrators have called the president's actions an assault on democracy.

"We, as residents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, demand that every vote must be counted, but also to send a message that democracy does not end on Election Day, that regardless of the outcome of this election, there will always be more work to do," Rahsaan Hall, the racial justice program director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, told WBZ.

"To fight as hard as we can to protect and preserve such a foundational aspect of our democracy, and that is the right to cast a ballot and for that ballot to be counted," said Tanisha Sullivan of the NAACP in a speech at the rally on Boston Common.

"He is trying very hard to steal an election," said demonstrator Jacob Urena of the president. "But you can try as hard as you want, the people will be there telling you 'no more.'"

Several groups came together in Nubian Square for a peaceful march to downtown Boston on Wednesday evening to demand that all votes be counted.

"What we want is all the votes to be counted and nobody to be declared the winner until that happens and we saw it in the 2000 election- that didn't happen. The votes were stopped counted and we found out later that Al Gore actually won," said Elan Axelbank of Social Alternative.

All of the organizers called for peaceful protests only.

Read: Baker, Walsh Call For Peaceful Protests

"As of right now, I have no concerns about violence in Boston," Mayor Marty Walsh told reporters Wednesday. "I think we've proven here in Boston that we can demonstrate peacefully and let our voices be heard."

The mayor also made a plea for safety during the pandemic and to make sure all events are over by 9:30 p.m.

"If you're going to march in the streets of Boston, wear a mask. If you're going to demonstrate, wear a mask," Walsh said.