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Last march: Trump fans in Phoenix, Arizona
Photo: EDGARD GARRIDO / REUTERS
Vanessa Horabuena sees herself as a victim of the felt-tip pen conspiracy.
"My voice is nowhere to be found," she says, showing a digital list on her cell phone, which she describes as her electoral card.
And there is nothing under "2020".
Why?
"Felt pens!" She says with conviction.
The Democrats had deliberately filled their polling station with them, "they were all in one of those cups."
So that the ink on the voting card would smudge and your vote would not be counted.
Horabuena is indignant.
The absurd so-called "Sharpie" conspiracy theory has been circulating for days among Donald Trump's most loyal fans, especially in Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, where Joe Biden had already overtaken the incumbent US president on election night and where it still miraculously happened waiting.
The thesis has long been officially refuted by a court and the Ministry of Homeland Security.
But that doesn't bother these people.
Votes are still being counted behind mirrored windows at the Maricopa County Elections Department, Phoenix's polling center.
Dozens of Trump fans have been gathering in a parking lot in front of this hall for days, with flags, posters and semi-automatic rifles to express their displeasure with the election process.
It is the last deployment of the Trump army.
But their attempt to intimidate the poor electoral workers inside who are counting votes for the minimum wage around the clock, and to revive the mood of the Trump rallies, is nothing more than tired protest theater.
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"Count our votes": Protest outside the Phoenix polling station
Photo: CHENEY ORR / REUTERS
Horabuena has built itself up on the asphalt, also to perhaps make some money at the inevitable end of the Trump era.
She is an artist, and Trump is her favorite motif: In monumental oil paintings, she portrayed him as a mythical hero, his grim, stoic likeness in front of dark storm clouds.
The small version costs 20 dollars (laminated), the flag-sized version 300 dollars.
"I'm his biggest fan," she says.
Trump clearly won the election, but the Democrats committed electoral fraud, not only with said Sharpies, but with a nationwide "Deep State" conspiracy that also included thousands of Republicans and, yes, Fox News.
"We won't allow Joe Biden to win this election," says Horabuena, a petite, friendly woman.
"No way."
But when asked what else they could do, the result is official, she has no answer.
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"Q sent me": Protester in front of the polling center in Phoenix
Photo: OLIVIER TOURON / AFP
A masked man in camouflage, on the other hand, finds an answer.
"I am American and I will protect America."
He is well equipped for this, firearm, jackknife, army goggles, bulletproof vest.
His squeaky clean AR-15 dangles like a phallic symbol.
"She's my girl," he says.
When you take a second look you notice that his outfit is still stiff, as if it had just been bought, and much too big, his lanky body disappears into it.
He's 23, he says, but he doesn't reveal anything more, including his name.
"In God We Trust" is emblazoned on the uniform where the name is otherwise.
Why does he show up here when all the roads to the voting center are blocked by heavily armed police officers anyway?
He doesn't trust them - and anyway not the politicians, "they want to take our weapons away from us all".
Really?
Arizona is an open carry state where you can run around openly with your gun.
"I grew up with a gun," he says.
"And no one will steal it from me."
Especially not Joe Biden, but that remains unspoken.
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"You want to kill the president!"
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in Phoenix
Photo: JIM URQUHART / REUTERS
A handful of these hobby soldiers have come, they are marching self-importantly through the crowd.
They loaded their equipment onto pickup trucks while their wives and friends in tight Trump T-shirts packed the cooler bags for this election protest picnic.
It is relatively quiet during the day.
Many are sitting on garden chairs, beer in hand.
Someone climbs a lamp post to loud cheers.
Others have hung Trump flags and put up cardboard signs: "We will not be deceived."
A man complains that he is being prevented from seeing the count in the hall: "They're hiding something!"
Next to him, a large sign from the electoral authority indicates the live stream, with which you can also follow everything that is happening behind the windows on your smartphone.
Every now and then someone grabs a megaphone and roars angrily at Biden, George Soros, Bill Gates, the WHO, China, the media.
It's like a local assembly of QAnon, the Trump-loving conspiracy tale.
Suddenly excitement.
A truck delivers something to the entrance of the voting center.
"Those are fake ballot papers!" Someone shouts.
"They're adding votes for Biden!"
Angry, the crowd spills against the chain link fence that secures the building.
In the truck is the footage of a cameraman.
In the evening, when a new batch of results is announced, it will be full.
Hundreds of people are now crowding, many with weapons, the sea of flags is becoming confusing, the air crackles.
Alex Jones appears, the ex-radio talker, vaccine opponent and climate crisis denier, who likes to spread wild conspiracy stories.
Surrounded by enthusiastic fans, he grabs the megaphone.
"They want to steal our choice!" He yells.
"You want to attack the White House and kill the President!"
At the end he lets go of his well-known primal scream: "Yeaaaaaaah!"
The crowd joins in with enthusiasm.
Then Jones disappears again.
The riot subsides, the people are crumbling, it is getting cool, dinner is waiting.
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