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

In Michigan, there are "tens of thousands of ballots that still need to be counted," Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Wednesday.

"Ballots are still being counted in our largest jurisdictions including Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint, Kalamazoo, and numerous other Michigan cities and townships," she said.

"I'm optimistic that by the end of the day, the majority of our ballots will be tabulated and we’ll be much closer to having a full, if not a full and complete, unofficial result to announce," Benson said.

In Michigan, the voting tabulation staff is made up of 600 people -- 300 Democrats and 300 Republicans -- who work in bipartisan pairs to open the envelopes, verify names and ballot numbers, tally votes and scan ballots into the system, according to the Michigan Secretary of State's office. 

"Boards at the county and state level that are also comprised of people from both parties will then review the procedures and counts of the entire election before the results are certified as official," Benson said.

"Every single valid ballot in Michigan will be counted," Benson stressed.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections randomly selected a number of votes to be hand counted during a virtual meeting Wednesday morning.

The sample audit count is required by statute and helps ensure the reliability of election results tabulated by a machine.

There are currently 117,000 outstanding absentee mail in ballots according to the NCSBE.

As of 7:30 a.m., Donald Trump was leading in North Carolina with 50% of the vote, while Joe Biden had 49%. About 95% of the expected vote has been counted.

ABC News has not yet made a projection on who will take the state, which has 15 electoral votes at stake.

-ABC News’ Tonya Simpson and Kelsey Walsh

Trump's legal team is exploring options for any potential court battles this morning, and  a senior source on the team told ABC News "all legal options are on the table in battleground states."  

-ABC News’ John Santucci

The Trump campaign on a press call Wednesday argued both that if all “legal ballots” are counted the president wins -- despite not providing any evidence that there have been any illegally cast ballots -- while also projecting confidence that the remaining vote count in a number of states will swing to the president.

“If all legally cast ballots are counted, the President would win,” Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien claimed.

The campaign did not provide any evidence throughout the call, or even attempt to explain, what basis they had for claiming ballots might be illegally cast and took no questions.

The Trump team hinted at a legal fight; Stepien said Wisconsin is within 1% and in "recount territory."

Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said he believes Nevada is “still in play,” banking on mail-ballots. Without providing evidence, Miller also said Nevada is a place that is “rife with corruption,” setting the stage for a battle and argument if Trump does not win.

In Arizona, Stepien claimed the final batch of votes being counted will bring more votes to the president.

And in Pennsylvania, where Stepien acknowledged that there are still over 1 million ballots to be counted, he added that he's confident Trump will hold his lead.

Miller said they believe that Trump is going to continue to over-perform with Black and Latino voters there as well, contributing to Trump’s lead.

Stepien ended the call by saying, "honing in specifically on Pennsylvania and Arizona, if all legally cast ballots are counted, the president will win."

-ABC News' Will Steakin