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, 6:19 PM EST
US seized 27 domain names Iran allegedly used in global influence campaign
The Justice Department announced Wednesday that on Election Day it successfully seized 27 domain names it said were used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in an unlawful global covert influence campaign.
"Today's 27 seizures are another important step against Iran's worldwide disinformation campaign," U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California David Anderson said in a statement. "This work will continue. We cannot allow Iran's attachment to fake news to overtake our commitment to the rule of law."
According to the Justice Department, four domains purported to be news outlets targeting audiences in the U.S. to influence policy and public opinion. Others were used to target audiences around the globe.
-ABC News' Alexander Mallin
Nov 04, 2020, 6:17 PM EST
ABC News to air a primetime election special at 10 p.m. ET
A primetime special -- "Your Voice Your Vote: Election 2020" -- will air on ABC television network and ABC News Live at 10 p.m., with correspondents fanned out across the country to provide updates on the presidential race from the states that are still counting votes.
ABC News Live will also stream a three-hour edition of "ABC News Live Prime" starting at 7 p.m.
Nov 04, 2020, 6:15 PM EST
People chanting, attempting to enter Detroit ballot processing center
A group of people arrived at the TCF center in Detroit on Wednesday, chanting and attempting to get inside, Sgt. Nicole Kirkwood from the Detroit Police Department told ABC News.
The TCF Center in Detroit is the major ballot processing location in Detroit, where ballots are still being counted. ABC News has projected that Joe Biden will win Michigan.
Detroit police escort a poll challenger out after he refused to leave, due to room capacity, at the TCF Center after election day in Detroit, Nov. 4, 2020.
Rebecca Cook/Reuters
For capacity reasons, only a certain number of people are allowed inside the center at once, Kirkwood said. As of now, the challengers are being rotated in and out of the building-- as some exit, others will be allowed in.
It is not clear exactly how many people are at the TCF Center, and it is not clear if they have any official capacity. Kirkwood said there are "no major concerns."
"Everything is manageable. There are people out there chanting, but that's about it," Kirkwood added.
-ABC News' Olivia Rubin
Nov 04, 2020, 6:12 PM EST
Fact check: 2 misleading Postal Service statistics
Two misleading statistics are circulating online blaming the Postal Service for problems with mail-in ballots.
Documents filed by the Postal Service in multiple court cases indicate that more than 300,000 mail-in ballots were processed on their way into a postage facility, but never processed on the way out -- leaving the impression that these ballots remain stacked up in some warehouse, uncounted.
But the Postal Service and outside experts agree that there is no basis to this claim.
In an affidavit filed Wednesday, Kevin Bray, the executive lead for mail processing at the Postal Service, said "there are many reasons that a ballot may not receive a finalization scan."
An election worker opens up a mail-in ballot before it is counted in the 2020 general election at the Dauphin County Administration Building, Nov. 3, 2020, in Harrisburg, Pa.
Julio Cortez/AP
Bray explained that the Postal Service has adopted a set of "extraordinary measures" meant to improve ballot distribution times. Those measures, in part, involve removing ballots from normal processing to speed-up their delivery to election officials.
"This process involves an expedited approach to sorting ballots by (Boards of Election) on our processing equipment," he said, "and thus the ballots receive a first scan and are then removed, or 'held out' from further processing."
The Postal Service has also said in court filings that ballots sometimes stick together, are processed by hand or have illegible bar codes.
The second misleading statistic is that the Postal Service failed to deliver between 5 to 10% of mail-in ballots on time in the days leading up to Election Day.
The figures cited are daily "processing scores" provided to multiple courts pursuant to orders from federal judges -- not on-time delivery standards, as some news outlets have mistakenly reported.
U.S. Postal Service trays are seen as workers of the Miami-Dade County Elections Department feed mail-in ballots in counting machines during the 2020 presidential election in Miami, Nov. 3, 2020.
Marco Bello/Reuters
The "processing scores" are complicated metrics that include several factors, including the time between a piece of mail's first and last processing, but not including transportation days.
These are court-ordered metrics intended to shed light on how timely ballots are being delivered. But many Postal Service offices do not track ballots -- they track First-Class mail, which includes ballots but also other types of mail. The Postal Service has repeatedly cast doubt on the viability of its own figures.
"This data does not produce accurate, reliable information, as it is incomplete, subject to change, and overall, is not an accurate representation of the Postal Service's performance," the Postal Service notes in each of its filings.
