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

The president-elect emphasized how he would handle the pandemic response.

ByCatherine Thorbecke, Morgan Winsor, Libby Cathey, Adia Robinson, Lauren King, Emily Shapiro, Ivan Pereira, and Marc Nathanson
Last Updated: November 10, 2020, 10:14 AM EST

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.

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Here's how election week unfolded. All times Eastern.
Nov 04, 2020, 2:02 AM EST

Timing of North Carolina's certification process

North Carolina requires a sample audit count to ensure the reliability of election results tabulated by a machine, so following the general election, the State Board of Elections will randomly select precincts, early voting sites and ballots to be counted by hand in each county.

The precincts will be audited beginning at 11 a.m. on Wednesday. The audit is a comparison of the machine counts with hand-to-eye counts completed as a test to ensure voting equipment read the voter's choices accurately.

A volunteer with Democracy North Carolina sits to answer questions at Waddell Language Academy in Charlotte, N.C. shortly after the polls opened on election day, Nov. 3, 2020.
Grant Baldwin/AFP via Getty Images

All mail-in votes postmarked by Nov. 3 will be accepted through Nov. 12. This date was extended at the request of the state board due to an increase in volume and concerns over Postal Service. 

Local election boards will certify votes on Nov. 13 and the state board will certify on Nov. 24

-ABC News’ John Santucci and Tonya Simpson

Nov 04, 2020, 1:43 AM EST

Biden projected to win Minnesota 

Biden will win Minnesota’s 10 electoral votes, ABC News projects, raising his Electoral College standing to 220 votes, while Trump’s stands at 213.

Nov 04, 2020, 1:43 AM EST

Trump, Biden will split Nebraska’s remaining 2 electoral votes

Trump will win the 1st Congressional District of Nebraska, picking up one electoral vote, ABC News projects, and Biden will win the 2nd Congressional District -- a small but significant victory for Democrats. 

FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver said with this vote, if Biden also wins Arizona, he can lose Pennsylvania and still have a viable pathway to the White House. 

Because Nebraska allocates electoral votes based on both the statewide result and the results in congressional districts, the electoral votes are not allocated all at once. ABC News previously projected three of the state’s five electoral votes to Trump.

In all, Biden picked up one electoral vote in the historically red state.

Nov 04, 2020, 1:34 AM EST

Trump projected to win Montana

Trump will win Montana’s three electoral votes, ABC News projects, boosting his standing in the Electoral College to 212 votes. Biden has 209 electoral votes and 270 are needed to win

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