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.
A judge in Michigan said Thursday afternoon she would deny a plea from the Trump campaign to stop the processing and counting of absentee ballots in the state, mainly citing the fact that the counting is already largely done.
-ABC News' Allison Pecorin and Olivia Rubin
Among the 12,189 new votes coming in from Washoe County, Nevada, home to Reno, Biden gained 5,802 votes, compared with Trump's 5,469.
With 94% of the expected vote reporting in Washoe, Biden has 50.6% or 123,501 votes while Trump has 46.5% or 113,394
In 2016, Hillary Clinton won Washoe by a narrow margin of just 2,621.
In Clark County, home to Las Vegas, much of the vote is still outstanding, but the newest batch of votes went to Biden by a 2-to-1 margin, compared with Trump's votes. Biden gained more than 9,000 votes and Trump gained more than 4,000.
-ABC News' Kendall Karson and Cheyenne Haslett
In Georgia, Trump is now leading by 13,540 votes. As of 1 p.m. ET, Trump has 49.5% (2,436,007 votes) while Biden has 49.2% (2,422,467 votes).
As of 12:45 p.m., Georgia had about 50,401 absentee ballots still outstanding, said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
As of 9:15 a.m., Chatham County, home to the Democrat-leaning city of Savannah, had the most outstanding absentee ballots with about 17,000. Chatham County went for Hillary Clinton by a 14.7-point margin in 2016.
-ABC News' Elwyn Lopez and Quinn Scanlan
Sources close to Trump told ABC News Thursday morning that the path ahead is “narrow” and it is increasingly looking “tough” for the president.
Sources say aides are trying to calmly map out a plan forward and they are putting a lot of hope in Arizona.
As the numbers tighten, aides say there is “growing concern” with the vote count in Georgia.
Sources say Trump is asking about the legal options available in some cases and that he's laser focused on Pennsylvania and Arizona. Despite the Trump campaign taking legal action in Michigan and demanding a recount in Wisconsin, Trump sources told ABC News there is no viable path there.
-ABC News' John Santucci
