The president-elect emphasized how he would handle the pandemic response.
Joe Biden is set to become the 46th president of the United States, capping a tumultuous and tension-filled campaign during a historic pandemic against President Donald Trump. ABC News characterized Joe Biden as the apparent winner of his home state of Pennsylvania, putting him over the 270 vote threshold needed to capture the presidency.
The hard-fought battle against the president was set against the backdrop of racial unrest and the coronavirus pandemic and bitter divisions among the electorate.
Trump had falsely declared on election night, when he held a lead in several key states, that he won the contest and alleged without evidence, after the count started to swing the other way, that the election was being stolen from him and that fraud had been committed.
Painting the election as a "battle for the soul of the nation," Biden won on a message of unity over division, compassion over anger, and reality over what he called Trump's "wishful thinking" as the coronavirus pandemic cast a heavy shadow over the campaign.
The 2020 election has shattered voting records with votes totaling 147 million and counting, surpassing the 138 million who voted in 2016.
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb will win reelection in Indiana, ABC News projects.
Holcomb, a close ally of Vice President Mike Pence, was leading Democratic candidate Dr. Woody Myers by double digits in recent polls.
All 18 precincts in Spalding County, Georgia, will remain open for an extra two hours after the county experienced what it said was a "county wide technical issue" in the morning.
The precinct closing time has been extended to 9 p.m., per a court order issued by Superior Court Judge W. Fletcher Sams, according to a post by the Spalding County Board of Commissioners.
Jordan Fuchs, the deputy secretary of state, told ABC News that the extension will not delay results from the state.
Spadling County has a population of just over 66,000, according to the U.S. Census bureau, and is the 37th most populous in a state of 159 counties. It went for Trump in 2016.
Earlier this morning, polling locations across the county experienced a "technical issue" with its poll pads, which check voters in, and provisional ballots had to be delivered to every location, according to a statement from the county.
In the afternoon, Gabriel Sterling, the implementations manager at the Georgia Secretary of State Office, said that eight of the 18 locations affected in Spalding had since been reset and were "fine." Regardless of whether the locations had been reset, "every location has voters voting right now," Sterling said.
"Voting continues, voting continued at the time, and we feel very comfortable and confident about where we are," Sterling said later.
Separately, hours have been extended at at least three other polling locations across the state. Two locations were extended in Dekalb County, and one in Cobb County.
-ABC News' Olivia Rubin
The polls are closing in Georgia, Virginia, Vermont, South Carolina and Florida.
Among five issues listed as most important in making their vote for president, preliminary exit poll results have found about a third of voters said their top issue was the economy, in a year marked by a severe recession and record levels of unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic.
After that, 21% said the most important issue was racial inequality, with 2020 seeing waves of protesters nationwide following the death of George Floyd in police custody.
Another 18% put their top issue as the coronavirus pandemic itself. Crime/safety and health care policy rounded out the five issues, with 11% each.
In a measure of personal characteristics, 52% said Trump lacks the temperament it takes to serve effectively as president, while 45% said the same about Biden. Trump was deeper under water on this question in 2016, yet won the Electoral College nonetheless.
-ABC News' Polling Director Gary Langer
