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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.

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.

Top headlines:

Here's how election week unfolded. All times Eastern.
Nov 05, 2020, 12:14 PM EST

Biden continues to gain ground in Pennsylvania

The percentage of expected vote reporting in Pennsylvania has ticked up from 89% to 92%, as Biden continues to narrow his defecit with Trump from 164,414 votes to 121,857.

Trump now leads in the Keystone State with 3,226,685 votes -- 50.3% -- while Biden has 3,104,828 -- 48.4%.

Supporters of President Donald Trump demonstrate outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center where votes are being counted, Nov. 5, 2020, in Philadelphia, following Tuesday's election.
Matt Slocum/AP

There are roughly 560,000 outstanding votes that have yet to be counted statewide, including 581,167 mail-in ballots, according to the latest data from the Pennsylvania Department of State.

Biden would need about 60.8% of the remaining ballots to eclipse Trump's 3,226,685 tally in order to win the state.

-ABC News' Adam Kelsey

Nov 05, 2020, 12:06 PM EST

Vote counting in Arizona's Maricopa County could take days, officials say

Election officials in Arizona's Maricopa County told ABC News that ballot counting there could take days and will likely continue into the weekend.

Historic voter turnout in Arizona's most populous county has pushed officials to count more ballots than ever before, officials said.

Some 275,000 absentee ballots and 17,000 provisional ballots have not yet been counted in Maricopa County, along with several thousand early votes that need additional research, according to officials. It was unclear how many ballots would be counted Thursday.

Election officials arrive for work at the Maricopa County Recorder's Office, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020, in Phoenix.
Matt York/AP

Maricopa County accounts for nearly two-thirds of the state's registered voters. The county seat is Phoenix, the capital of Arizona and the fifth-most populous city in the United States.

With 86% of the expected vote reporting, Biden currently leads in Maricopa County -- 51.4% to Trump's 47.2%.

Biden also holds an edge over Trump statewide, with 1,469,341 votes against Trump's 1,400,951 -- 50.5% to 48.1%. About 86% of Arizona's expected absentee vote and 86% of the state's expected vote overall are in.

-ABC News' Jenna Harrison, Whit Johnson and Matthew Seyler

Nov 05, 2020, 11:40 AM EST

Georgia leaning to Biden, campaign manager says

Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon on Thursday called Georgia a "toss-up," and said Trump is in the lead, but Biden is cutting into that lead as more outstanding ballots are counted.

Georgia "is going to be very very close," she said, and "at this stage, leans to the vice president."

Democratic and Republican representatives review absentee ballots at the Fulton County Election preparation Center Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, in Atlanta.
John Bazemore/AP

O'Malley Dillon said Biden is up narrowly in Nevada and is on track to win the state.

She said the remaining ballots to be counted in Pennsylvania are expected to heavily favor Biden.

O'Malley Dillon called Trump's lawsuits "meritless" and an effort to "distract and delay."

Nov 05, 2020, 10:32 AM EST

Trump tweets 'STOP THE COUNT!'

As ballots continued to be counted in several key states Thursday morning, Trump took to Twitter demanding, "STOP THE COUNT!"

Trump tweeted again, saying, "ANY VOTE THAT CAME IN AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED!" Twitter flagged his second tweet as "disputed and might be misleading."

Trump's tweets come as his own campaign team argues that the ongoing vote count in Arizona will prove to be a win for the president.

The president does not have the power to stop the legal vote counting process. Nevertheless, the Trump campaign has filed lawsuits to halt vote counting in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Shortly before Trump's tweets, Biden took to Twitter himself to say, "Every vote must be counted." Biden's tweet included a video with no audio urging "count every vote."

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