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:
At his campaign headquarters, Trump says 'winning is easy, losing is never easy'
After ten rallies in two days, President Donald Trump made a stop to his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, on Election Day to thank staffers for their hard work over the course of the campaign.
In a video, staffers were seen in masks, yet senior adviser to the president Jared Kushner, Trump 2020 Campaign Manager Bill Stepien, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who were all in attendance, did not wear masks.
When asked what his message was for Americans who didn’t vote for him if he wins tonight, Trump said that, “I think we’re set for tremendous success and success is going to bring unity.”
“Everybody should come together and I think success brings us together. We’re going to have a tremendous success,” the president said. “We had 33.1% up in growth, GDP, and nobody has ever seen a number like that.”
Trump hinted that he may give a speech this evening regardless of the outcome, saying, “we’re going to have to see.”
The president, however, said he hasn’t thought about either a concession or acceptance speech adding, “winning is easy, losing is never easy.”
“I’m not thinking about concession speech or acceptance speech yet,” he said. “Hopefully, we'll be only doing one of those two.”
- ABC News’ Terrance Smith and Elizabeth Thomas.
Judge orders mail inspectors to USPS facilities in key battlegrounds to ensure 'no ballots were left behind'
A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Postal Service to send inspectors to several processing facilities in key battleground states -- including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida -- to ensure that no mail-in ballot is left behind.
U.S. Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled Tuesday that the Postal Service must “sweep the facilities between 12:30 PM EST and 3:00 PM EST to ensure that no ballots have been held up and that any identified ballots are immediately sent out for delivery.”
Those inspectors are ordered to report back to the court by 4:30 p.m. ET “confirming, in the most efficient manner available, that sweeps were conducted and that no ballots were left behind,” Sullivan wrote.
The matter at hand is part of a lawsuit brought in August by the NAACP accusing the Postal Service and its leader, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, of disenfranchising voters of color by implementing a set of cost-cutting initiatives that slowed mail service.
- ABC News’ Lucien Bruggeman.
FBI investigating robocalls with election misinformation
The FBI is probing reports of robocalls being made on Election Day urging people to stay home and not vote, according to a senior Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency official.
The official added this is a “voter intimidation, voter suppression tactic." The official also pointed out that robocalls of this nature are made in every election.
“Be mindful of people that are trying to intimidate you, undermine your confidence, but keep calm and vote on,” the senior CISA official added.
Earlier today, ABC News confirmed robocalls have been going out to voters in the battleground state of Michigan -- specifically targeting the city of Flint, Michigan, where the majority of residents are Black.
These robocalls are "purposefully spreading misinformation" according to the statements from Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. The robocalls are telling voters to vote tomorrow -- instead of today -- due to long lines, according to the tweet from Nessel.
Nessel urged people not to “believe the lies.”
-ABC News' Luke Barr.
Front-line poll workers lauded on Election Day
Across the country, images of poll workers decked out in full personal protective equipment during this unusual election are garnering applause on social media.
In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told reporters earlier this week that 52,000 Georgians volunteered to be poll workers this election, even in the middle of a pandemic, and later on urged voters to "show grace" to those helping to usher in record turnout.
Meanwhile in Ohio, Secretary of State Frank LaRose said on the “Powerhouse Politics” podcast Monday that the state recruited a "whole new generation" of poll workers ahead of the 2020 vote.
“That's been a huge success. 56,000 Ohioans have volunteered and been trained to be poll workers. That's far and away above previous numbers,” he said. “37,000 is really the bare minimum that we need, but we wanted to go 50% above that. So we've got 56,000 poll workers trained and ready to go.”
In Michigan, the Pistons are lending their facility to receive ballots, while all employees are given a paid day off this Election Day in order to vote and serve as poll workers. Michigan has also worked to recruit multilingual poll workers to assist voters as part of a new effort to make voting more accessible.
-ABC News' Kendall Karson