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

Lawyers for Trump have filed with the Supreme Court seeking to join a pending lawsuit brought by the Pennsylvania GOP seeking to challenge a three-day mail ballot deadline extension. 

The U.S. Supreme Court has previously rejected the Pennsylvania Republicans' requests to block the extension, but four justices last month did signal openness to potentially take up the case on the merits after Tuesday.  

That cert petition has been pending and is not on any timeline for a decision. By adding himself as a party, Trump seems to be attempting to boost the chances the Court will take it up. 

"Given last night's results, the vote in Pennsylvania may well determine the next President of the United States. And this Court, not the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, should have the final say on the relevant and dispositive legal questions," the president's counsels wrote in their filing.  

The controversy stems from a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision, which initially granted the extension. Republicans have said the matter of counting votes should be left to the state legislature not the state's highest court.

It remains unclear if the Supreme Court will take up the matter. It's also unclear whether the justices' involvement would have any impact on the outcome in Pennsylvania.  

The universe of votes arriving Wednesday, Thursday and Friday is not yet known, nor is the ultimate margin of votes between Biden and Trump in Pennsylvania and whether those late-arriving ballots would sway the results one way or the other. 

-ABC News’ John Santucci, Benjamin Siegel and Devin Dwyer

Joe Biden spoke to the public Wednesday, saying, "it's clear that we're winning enough states to reach 270 electoral votes."

Biden clarified, "I'm not here to declare that we've won, but I am here to report when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners."

"Of special significance to me is that we’ve won with the majority of the American people," Biden said. "And every indication is that the majority will grow. We have a popular vote lead of nearly 3 million votes, and every indication is that will grow."

Biden said it's important for the nation to unite once the election is finalized.

"To make progress we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies," he said.

"We the people will not be silenced. We the people will not be bullied. We the people will not surrender," Biden said. "My friends, I'm confident we'll emerge victorious. But this will not be my victory alone or our victory alone: it’ll be a victory for the American people."

The North Carolina State Board of Elections said during a Wednesday afternoon news conference that the number of outstanding absentee by mail ballots stands at 117,000.

The Board of Elections also said it hit a new state record with 74% voter participation.

With 95% of the expected vote reporting, Trump has a narrow 50% lead over Biden’s 49% in the state.

Local county boards will complete their canvass of votes on Nov. 13, and the state board will meet on Nov. 24 to certify the results, officials said.

-ABC News’ Tonya Simpson

With 93% of the expected vote reporting in Georgia, Trump's margin has tightened slightly. Trump is now leading by 79,509 votes -- the president has 2,391,871 votes (50%) and Joe Biden has 2,312,362 votes (49%). 

Earlier, Trump was leading by about 103,00 votes. 

In Fulton County -- Georgia's most populous county -- there are about 67,000 to 68,000 votes that still need to be reported, according to the county Director of Registration and Elections Rick Barron.

The outstanding votes are made up of about 25,000 that have already been scanned and are going through an adjudication process. Another roughly 42,000 absentee ballots need to be processed, scanned and adjudicated.

Barron estimated that the votes will be finished between 9 p.m. and midnight. 

There are no mandatory recounts in Georgia. The losing candidate must have lost by less than 0.5% of the total votes cast in the race in order to request a recount, according to the secretary of state's office.

-ABC News' Quinn Scanlan