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.
Here's how election week unfolded. All times Eastern.
Nov 04, 2020, 3:37 AM EST
Daines projected to keep his Senate seat
ABC News projects Republican Sen. Steve Daines will win reelection in Montana against the Democratic challenger, Gov. Steve Bullock.
Bullock, a red state Democratic governor, was reportedly recruited by national Democrats in Washington, including former President Barack Obama, to run for the Senate seat after his failed presidential bid.
It was the sixth most expensive Senate race in a cycle of ultra-expensive races, coming in at $172,578,715 spent, as Democrats pursued a path to their hopeful Senate majority through Montana.
-ABC News' Meg Cunningham
Nov 04, 2020, 3:04 AM EST
Trump falsely declares victory: 'We already have won'
More than an hour after Biden addressed the nation, Trump took the stage at the East Room of the White House and falsely declared victory.
"We will win this and, as far as I'm concerned, we already have won it," Trump said.
ABC News projects that he has won the states of Florida, Ohio and Texas. But votes are still being counted across much of the nation, and there are millions of mail-in absentee ballots that have not yet been counted.
President Donald Trump speaks during election night in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Nov. 4, 2020.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Trump also claimed Democrats were "trying to disenfranchise" the millions of people who voted for him, calling it "a major fraud in our nation" and saying he "won't stand for it."
"We'll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court," he said. "We want all voting to stop."
The president does not have the power to stop vote counting, and his claims of victory and fraud were baseless.
State officials have told ABC News repeatedly that they count their votes in accordance with state law and it will take time.
ABC News has not yet projected several key swing states, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin. In each of those states, there are significant portions of outstanding votes in Democratic areas and, in many cases, those votes were early or absentee which state election officials have said would not be fully counted immediately.
Nov 04, 2020, 3:25 AM EST
Latest on results timeline from Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania's three largest counties - which sent out the most absentee ballots to voters, will continue counting their mail-in ballots through the night, and into Wednesday.
Allegheny County has scanned and uploaded 151,022 mail and absentee ballots, less than half of the 340,000 mail-in ballots received as of this early this morning.
In addition to finishing that process over the next few days, they will also have to process any ballots they receive between now and Friday.
Election workers check mail-in and absentee ballots for the 2020 General Election at West Chester University, Nov. 3, 2020, in West Chester, Pa.
Matt Slocum/AP
While the in-person vote could be fully uploaded Wednesday, it's likely that it will take several additional days for a full count of absentee mail-in ballots.
Updates are continually made to their count online every 15 minutes or so.
Philadelphia is continuing to process absentee ballots received, in addition to those that will come in between Wednesday and Friday. They won't have another update to their count until tomorrow morning, after 9 a.m. The city's mail-in vote count is not currently reflected on the state's website.
Montgomery County, the state's third largest county, will continue counting through the night, and is not expected to provide any additional updates this evening.
-ABC News’ John Santucci, Adam Kelsey, Benjamin Siegel and Alex Hosenball
Nov 04, 2020, 2:30 AM EST
Biden picks up 1 electoral vote in Maine
Biden will pick up at least one of Maine's four electoral votes, ABC News projects.
Maine allocates electoral votes based on both the statewide result and the results in the congressional districts, so the electoral votes are not allocated all at once.
