Biden-Harris supporters parade in the streets of Poplar Bluff

A group of Biden-Harris 2020 supporters paraded through the streets of Poplar Bluff Saturday afternoon to show their excitement over Democrat Joe Biden winning the presidency.

On Saturday, Biden crossed 270 Electoral College votes with a win in Pennsylvania to become the 46th president.

“We’re all very excited as you can see from the parade,” said Keith French, secretary of the Butler County Democrat Central Committee. “Pennsylvania was called today (Saturday). We think Biden won.”

With flags and signs held high, Biden-Harris supporters drive down Fifth Street Saturday afternoon.DAR/Michelle Friedrich

French said everyone is waiting to see if President Donald Trump accepts the outcome or whether “he will try to overthrow the will of the people.”

Biden, French said, will bring back “dignity and truthfulness to the White House.”

The hope is “we can heal as a nation … and move on from the Trump era and be a better nation,” French said.

Democrat Central Committee Chairman Kevin Ellis holds a Biden-Harris sign during a parade Saturday afternoon in response to Joe Biden securing the Electoral College votes to win the presidency.DAR/Michelle Friedrich

Saturday’s parade, French said, was thrown together in about half an hour. If there had been longer to plan, he said, there would have been more who joined in.

About 10 vehicles, many displaying Biden-Harris signs, gathered at Hillcrest Park before 3 p.m.

After leaving the park, the paradegoers made their way down Fifth Street to Highway 53. From there, they headed north on Westwood Boulevard before going west on Kanell Boulevard. After taking Shelby Road to Oak Road, the parade went south on Westwood, stopping at Ozark Meats, where, French said, all the signs are “up on the hill.”

“We wanted to go through the core of the city,” French said.

By parading north and south on Westwood Boulevard, he said, they “hit the whole core.”

During the parade, “we found we got just as many positive reactions, people honking, giving us thumbs up as people having negative reactions,” French said. “I was quite pleased with that.”

Joe Leahy, Butler County Republic Central Committee chairman, said Republicans are waiting to see who the winner is once all the official counts are finished.

“In 1950, the entire body of votes were counted by midnight, and a victor was announced. Fast forward with all the technological advances, and we have to wait at least four days? Something doesn’t fit,” Eddy Justice, former chairman of the Republican Central Committee, wrote in a text to the Daily American Republic.

Missouri did a tremendous job getting results out as soon as possible and well before midnight as many states did, and it was done in an honest and transparent way, said Justice, who sent “congrats” to Butler County Clerk Tonyi Deffendall.

“I don’t believe the election was honest when a man votes in Wisconsin who is 118 years old and died in 1984,” Justice said. “When 139,000 votes get dumped at one time at 4 a.m. and all are for one candidate? Really?

“When there are whole states, whole counties, that have more counted votes than registered voters? There is a lot of legal wrangling yet to happen.”

The mainstream media, Justice said, does not “get to tell us who wins. (Remember they called the election for Gore over Bush) The Electoral College does. Time will tell.”

Whoever the winner is, “we support the president of the United States,” Leahy said. “I was hoping it was going to Donald Trump and Mike Pence. … Trump and Pence campaigned hard and did the best they could to win the election.”