Record turnout: 142 million – and counting

In a year that seemed to drag on, the 2020 presidential election finally arrived. On  Nov. 3, people across the United States started watching as the numbers came in and electoral votes were  won.  

However, by the end of the day Tuesday, a clear winner had yet to be called.

Now, election officials in key states are scrambling to count the remaining votes that will  decide the next president. Nevada, Arizona, Alaska, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia remained too close to call at press time Wednesday. 

The path to the presidency is narrow for both candidates at press time Wednesday  night, with Vice President Joe Biden receiving 264 electoral votes and President Donald Trump  receiving 214. Biden six electoral votes short of winning the election.  

Despite the uncertainty, both candidates seem hopeful about winning.  

Trump called premature victory in several undecided states and falsely claimed that he  had won the election in an early morning press conference Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. 

“As far as I’m concerned, we’ve already won,” Trump said, per The Washington Post. 

He called the inconclusive election results a “major fraud on our nation” and said he  would ask the Supreme Court to weigh in on it, the AP reported.

Biden said in a Wednesday afternoon press conference that he was expecting to win the  election, though he didn’t declare victory. 

“When the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners,” Biden said. He told his supporters to “be patient” while waiting for every vote to be counted, the AP said in several reports. 

According to The New York Times, as of Wednesday night, Biden holds a popular-vote advantage of 3 million votes over Trump. 

The Guardian reported several hundred protesters carrying signs, chanting, and dancing gathered in the Black  Lives Matter Plaza in Washington Tuesday night to watch the vote count. There was a  small scuffle between some of the protestors and police. Four people were arrested. 

Trump’s campaign filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Michigan Wednesday to halt the vote counting. 

In a statement posted Wednesday on Trump’s official website, his campaign manager Bill Stepien said that the campaign “has not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law.”  

Trump supporters gathered in the TCF Center in Detroit chanting “Stop the count!” at election officials in support of this claim. 

With 50.3% of the vote, the AP called Michigan for Biden Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile in Wisconsin, a state the AP called for Biden, the Trump campaign also called for a recount. In a second statement Wednesday, Stepien claimed “irregularities in several Wisconsin counties.”

However, state poll observers have not reported any voter fraud, the AP reported.