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.
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Polls open in Arkansas
The polls are opening in Arkansas.
Polls open in 12 states and Puerto Rico
The polls are opening in North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Arizona, Alabama, in several counties in Tennessee and Puerto Rico.
In new videos, Biden, Harris urge voters to head to the polls in final campaign push
As part of the campaign's final efforts to turn out voters and deny President Donald Trump a second term, both former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris are urging Americans to head to the polls today as a chaotic election is set to near its end.
In two new digital videos released by the Biden campaign on Tuesday, both Biden and Harris are telling Americans that have not voted to make sure their voices are heard.
"Today is Election Day. The future of our country is going to hinge on who votes in the next few hours. So please, if you have to go out and vote, please vote. And vote as soon as possible," Biden says in one of the videos.
"Today is Election Day, our last chance to choose once and for all a brighter future for our country and leadership that will restore the soul of our nation. And we are counting on you to put us over the finish line," Harris says in the other.
The late push comes as a record number of Americans, nearly 100 million, have voted early this cycle, another way in which the coronavirus pandemic has upended the 2020 race and reshaped the electoral battlefield.
Both Biden and Harris were in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Monday, and the former vice president is set to visit his hometown of Scranton later today, while Harris will travel to Detroit, Michigan, to rally voters and boost turnout in another state key to the Democratic ticket's chances of victory.
ABC News' John Verhovek
Polls open in 13 states
The polls are opening in South Carolina, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, District of Columbia, Delaware, Missouri, Louisiana and in several counties in Tennessee.