More than 1000 protesters in the U.S. On Tuesday night, just a block from the White House, President Donald Trump converged on Black Lives Matter Plaza, while hundreds more marched through parts of downtown Washington, sometimes blocking traffic and setting off fireworks.

Scattered protests also took place from Seattle to New York City, but in the hours immediately after the polls closed, there were no signs of serious violence or widespread unrest throughout the U.S., with the outcome still unknown.

The Washington demonstrations were largely peaceful, with people yelling, "Whose streets?" The streets of ours! and "If we do not receive justice, they will not receive peace!" Teenage groups danced as onlookers cheered in the street.

Large banners were unfurled, including one reading "Trump lies all the time." The marchers stabbed the tires of a parked police van at one point to flatten them.

Hundreds marched in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle in anti-Trump demonstrations, with several people arrested.

"This is what democracy looks like," protesters chanted in Portland, where organizers said the demonstration would be peaceful and that they would continue protesting in support of racial justice regardless of the presidential election outcome. The sheriff's office said that some protesters were carrying weapons openly.

Police in Seattle said a number of people were arrested, including someone who put nails on the road and someone who drove over a barricade and into a police bike lane. There was nobody injured.

Ahead of the election, hundreds of businesses in cities across the U.S. boarded their doors and windows, fearing the vote could lead to the kind of violence that broke out earlier this year under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer after the death of George Floyd.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said earlier in the day, "Some people would like to cause mayhem and trouble." She said she had never seen so many companies boarded up: "That saddens me all."