Election 2020 updates: Biden warns of 'dark winter,' pushes masks in pandemic plan

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was "proud" Democrats were able to retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

"I'm very, very proud of the fact that tonight, relatively early, we are able to say that we have held the House," she said Tuesday night. 

ABC News projected that Democrats would retain control of the U.S. House of Representatives before 11 p.m.

Pelosi said that this election was about health care.

"Our purpose in this race was to win so that we could protect the affordable care act, and that we could crush the virus, that we could stop the spread of it," she said.

"It is something quite spectacular because the people who helped us win were the people who have been affected by (COVID-19)," the speaker added. "Thousands of those who have been diagnosed or members of their family diagnosed with a pre-existing condition have spoken out, have told their stories. ... Now, we have to win the White House, and we're well on our way to doing that."

The election department sent the ballot counters at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta home at 10:30 p.m., Regina Waller, the Fulton County public affairs manager for elections, told ABC News, despite earlier intentions to complete processing Tuesday night. 

Some additional numbers could still come out from the county, but as of now the staff will be back at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Earlier there was an issue with a water pipe that delayed the vote count.

Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said, "It had no impact on ballots, not a single ballot was damaged."

-ABC News' John Santucci

ABC News projects the Georgia Senate special election will go to a run-off, as none of the candidates met the required threshold to win the race, an expected result as 20 candidates competed on the same ballot.

Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King Jr. served as co-pastor until his death, will be one candidate in the race. Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler will be the other.

Rep. Doug Collins, who currently serves as Georgia's 9th Congressional District representative, was beaten out by Loeffler. The two have been in a competitive race for months, trying to prove themselves as the most loyal to the president and the most conservative choices on the ballot. 

Collins tweeted that he's congratulated Loeffler and will be supporting her. 

Loeffler was appointed to this seat by Gov. Brian Kemp in late 2019 to replace retiring Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson. 

The runoff will be on Jan. 5.

-ABC News’ Quinn Scanlan

ABC Chief Political Analyst Matthew Dowd said "it's clear" that Trump voters are turning out this election. 

"It's not as if the African American vote's not turning out and there's a problem -- they're turning out, but the counter to that is Donald Trump's supporters are turning out, even in greater numbers than they did in 2016."