Votes are still being counted more than 48 hours since Election Day but there are now unprecedented efforts to stop the counting. President Donald Trump has repeatedly, in speeches and on Twitter, demanded certain states stop counting votes.  

According to the New York Times, mail-in ballots and absentee ballots are generally being counted after votes which were cast in person on Election Day. Republicans in many states tried to force election officials to do it this way.

The messages from the president seemed to incite his supporters to violently attack vote counting centers in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada.

But these efforts have had little effect on the counting, which has continued unabated. Thankfully, a pastor from Detroit has put into words what many across the country are feeling.

Rev. Dr. Steve Bland Jr. of Liberty Temple Baptist Church, spoke with MSNBC outside of a vote count office in Detroit and slammed the protests demanding the count be stopped, powerfully explaining why it was important to count every single vote. 

"We are in the process of getting all the votes counted. The road to victory of any side is going to come through Michigan and Detroit. To stop the vote suggests to stop the very democracy that these person are running to uphold, so we want every vote to count because our vote is our voice and it will be counted and the election process will be done," Bland Jr. said.

"Things are secure on the inside but of course, we have intimidating efforts on the outside but we are not deterred. As goes Detroit will go Michigan, and Michigan will join the force of others to be able to say that we have record turnout voting and again, if you want to represent Michigan or Detroit, you ought to want every vote counted," he added.

The end of the interview truly struck a chord when he offered a resonant message to the country about the pivotal role Black people play in elections. 

He noted that for months, Trump and his supporters have railed against mail-in ballots knowing that a significant number of Democrats would vote that way. 

"These [protesters] are persons who are passionate and they're consistent. They've been saying all along that they're going to suggest that its rigged. They've been saying all along that the will suggest that its flawed or fake but they've been saying that before now," Bland Jr. said.

"We just need to be persistent to make sure our voice and our vote gets counted because as goes Detroit will be done so. And I will say, the Black vote in Detroit is highest that its ever been and we will determine the outcome because we've gone from picking cotton to picking presidents," he told the reporter.

Many online applauded his words. 

Hundreds of people thanked the pastor online for succinctly explaining such a deep concept in so few words.

According to Newsweek, election officials were counting votes in Detroit's TCF Center, where Bland Jr. was standing and where there was a massive protest led by Trump supporters.

Trump filed a lawsuit demanding the vote counting be stopped.

But the Associated Press later called the state for Democratic candidate Joe Biden but his vote totals continue to grow as more mail-in ballots are counted from majority Black areas. 

Election-Day-2020Joe BidenmichiganPresident Donald TrumpSteve-Bland-Jr