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.
Trump will win Idaho’s four electoral votes and Biden will gain five from New Mexico, ABC News projects, raising the president's Electoral College standing to 118 votes and Biden’s to 192.
Deputy Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections Jessica Bowman told ABC News that localities were given deadline to stop processing ballots Tuesday night.
"We gave localities a 11 p.m. cutoff time to stop processing and whatever didn't get done will also resume tomorrow," said Bowman.
Bowman told ABC News that the state will have unofficial results Tuesday night, but ballots can come in until noon on Friday. Bowman also advises that absentee precincts will come in Tuesday night and then anything not counted or received will be counted and numbers are to be updated on Friday.
-ABC News' Terrance Smith
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
