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:
Judge to order twice-daily sweeps in mail facilities
A federal judge is preparing to order twice-daily sweeps at mail facilities in states with extended ballot-receipt deadlines after the U.S. Postal Service submitted data indicating that thousands of ballots postmarked over the weekend were not returned by Election Day.
New Postal Service data released Thursday showed that as many as 9,000 ballots postmarked over the weekend did not arrive at their destination until Wednesday, including in states with no ballot extension deadlines. In the Atlanta area, for example, 68 such ballots arrived late.
-ABC News' Lucien Bruggeman
Biden lead tightens in Nevada
With 88% of Nevada's expected vote in, Biden's lead over Trump has tightened to over 11,000 votes.
In Clark County, home to Las Vegas, Biden is ahead 53.1%-45.2%, with 85% of the expected vote in.
-ABC News' Kendall Karson
Judge permits campaign observers up-close view of ballot count after Trump complaint
A Pennsylvania judge has granted the Trump campaign’s request to observe -- up-close -- Philadelphia poll workers as they process the remaining mail-in ballots, overturning earlier rules that kept them farther back out of concern about the coronavirus.
The city of Philadelphia has filed an appeal to the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court. The court has not yet acted.
-ABC News' Alex Hosenball, Ben Siegel and Matt Mosk
Trump campaign's Georgia lawsuit dismissed
A judge in Chatham County, Georgia, home to the Democrat-leaning city of Savannah, dismissed the Trump campaign's lawsuit during a Thursday morning hearing, according an official in the judge's office.
The suit alleged that the county may be mishandling ballots and therefore inadvertently mixing up ballots that arrived on time with ones that arrived late. The suit was based on one allegation from an out-of-state Republican poll observer and involved less than 60 ballots.
The suit, filed alongside the Georgia Republican Party, sought to order the county to compile, store and account for all ballots received after 7 p.m. on Election Day (the receipt deadline).
-ABC News' Olivia Rubin