Gloved and masked, US vote counters keep focused on historic task
If it were at another time, what they were doing could seem like nothing much, maybe office sorting of some kind.
But the stakes could not have been higher on Thursday as workers in masks and gloves stood over folding tables to verify and count, one by one, the remaining ballots in the yet to be decided US presidential election.
The world was watching -- and so, of course, were the campaign teams for President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden along with their teams of lawyers.
Huge numbers of journalists from around the world were gathered, staking out space to record what will be a historic moment.
There was often not much to see -- just workers going about their task, sure and steady, dressed casually, sometimes with lanyards and IDs around their necks.
They made their way through a mountain of mailed ballots, the preferred method for many voters this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, checking their validity then sorting and running them through counting machines.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20201105-gloved-and-masked-us-vote-counters-keep-focused-on-historic-task