Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday expressed confidence in his path to the presidency as votes trickled in from several uncalled states, and as Fox News projected Wisconsin and Michigan would break for the former vice president.
Meanwhile, President Trump and members of his campaign were declaring victory in multiple states in which Fox News has not yet projected a winner, including Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Trump also claimed victory in Michigan, although Fox News has projected the state for Biden.
The Michigan and Wisconsin calls put Biden just six electoral votes away from the presidency.
Biden on Wednesday afternoon struck a presidential tone in a press conference in which he said if he is eventually elected: "I will govern as an American president."
Expressing confidence in his chances, Biden also said that "it's clear that we're winning enough states to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency" even as millions of votes are still being counted and the 2020 presidential election between him and Trump hinges on a handful of battleground states.
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Biden did not claim victory in the presidential race, but expressed strong confidence in his electoral vote path.
"I'm not here to declare that we won. But I'm here to report when the count is finished we believe we will be the winners," Biden said.
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign announced legal action in Pennsylvania, including an attempt to stop counting ballots in the Keystone State. The Trump campaign also said it would take similar action in Michigan.
Absentee ballots are still being counted in Pennsylvania and they "could be from Mars as far as we're concerned," Trump ally Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday. Although it was clear before Wednesday that it would take days to count ballots in Pennsylvania. "We have no idea if they really are ballots," he said.
Giuliani railed against alleged inconsistencies in how ballots were being counted, and he said that Republicans were not allowed to closely observe ballot counts.
"We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead," Trump said in a pair of tweets. "Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact, there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has widely been reported."
There is no evidence to support Trump's claims.
The race is still too early to call in a handful of crucial states and neither candidate is at the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the presidency despite early victories in some important swing states.
Trump won Florida, Ohio, Texas and others, while Biden carried Arizona, Minnesota and New Hampshire, according to the Fox News Decision Desk.
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The race now appears to hinge on Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. If Biden wins in any of those states he will be the next president of the United States.
Those states all have some votes yet to be reported which, despite narrow leads for one candidate or the other, remain critical to what the final result will be in those states, and by extension, the presidential election.
The Trump campaign has also said it will request a recount in Wisconsin, throwing the timing of when an election result may be final further into question.
Still, votes continue to be counted Thursday the country and the world watches to find out who will be president come Jan. 20.
Here's the latest in the uncalled battlegrounds:
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, said Wednesday morning that the Keystone State has more than 1 million mail-in ballots to count.
"I promised Pennsylvanians that we would count every vote and that’s what we’re going to do," he tweeted.
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar added Wednesday morning that there are "still millions of ballots left to be counted ... the counties are working incredibly hard."
"We are going to accurately count every single ballot," Boockvar said, continuing that election counts are "never done on the day of Election Night."
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As of Thursday afternoon, 88% of ballots were reported in the states with many left to be counted in several counties, including both Democratic strongholds and rural areas leaning toward Trump.
Trump on Thursday afternoon lead by just under 110,000 votes.
The Trump campaign's legal action in Pennsylvania includes support for a petition before the Supreme Court aimed at stopping a rule allowing ballots mailed on or before Election Day -- but received in the three days after Election Day -- to be counted.
The campaign is also suing to stop alleged blocking of GOP observers as ballots are counted and over a move by Boockvar that Trump deputy campaign manager Justin Clark said in a statement amounted to moving "the deadline for absentee and mail-in voters to provide missing proof of identification well past the deadline." The Trump campaign's legal action, according to that statement, would temporarily halt the counting of ballots.
"With these key actions, President Trump is telling all Americans he will do whatever it takes to ensure the integrity of this election for the good of the nation," Clark's statement continued.
Pennsylvania has 20 electoral votes.
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Nevada
The state has reported 76% of its ballots as of Thursday afternoon and shows Biden with a slim lead of just under 12,000
The state's election division announced Wednesday morning that more results would be released on Thursday. Votes that still need to be counted include mail-in ballots received on Election Day.
The state has six electoral votes up for grabs.
North Carolina
As of Thursday afternoon, Trump is holding a small lead of about 1.4% with 94% of votes reported. Trump's lead equates to just over 75,000 votes
North Carolina allows ballots that are mailed by Election Day but received up to nine days later to be counted, meaning if the margin remains razor-thin it could take time for a call to be made in the Tar Heel State.
"North Carolina stopped counting votes on election night because there were no more votes to count at this time," North Carolina Secretary of State Karen Brinson Bell said Wednesday. She continued that the state is now in the process of counting provisional ballots and counting absentee ballots as they come in "provided that they were postmarked by Election Day."
Bell added: "We never stop counting until all eligible votes are counted and added to the final audited and certified results."
North Carolina is considered critical to Trump's path to 270 electoral votes. Four years ago, Trump won the state by a margin of 3.7 points.
The Tar Heel State has 15 electoral votes up for grabs
Georgia
As of Thursday afternoon, Trump holds a lead of just under 13,000 votes with 99% reporting. That is the equivalent of two-tenths of a percent.
Vote counting in Fulton County was paused late Tuesday night but resumed Wednesday.
"By midday we should be pretty much through it," Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told ABC on Wednesday morning, indicating the race in that state may be barreling toward a conclusion. But the close margins between Biden and Trump have so far precluded projections from media organizations.
"We're doing fine," he added in a press conference later in the day, expressing confidence that Georgia would soon finish its vote-counting. "We'll be off everyone's radar and they'll be worried about the states up north."
Georgia has 15 electoral votes.
Wisconsin
On Wednesday, Fox News projected Wisconsin will tip in favor of Biden, further complicating Trump's path to 270 electoral votes.
Wisconsin Election Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe said on Wednesday that all votes in the state had been counted and reported except for "one tiny township with less than 300 voters."
"The election has gone according to law," Wolfe added. "Every step is publicly observable."
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign has already said that it will request a recount in Wisconsin.
"There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results," Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a statement. "The President is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so."
The Biden campaign slammed the Trump team over its statements on Wisconsin.
"What makes these charades especially pathetic is that while Trump is demanding recounts in places he has already lost, he's simultaneously engaged in fruitless attempts to halt the counting of votes in other states in which he's on the road to defeat," Biden Rapid Response Director Andrew Bates said in a statement. "This is not the behavior of a winning campaign. Plain and simple, Donald Trump has lost Wisconsin, he is losing Michigan, and he is losing the presidency."
Wisconsin has 10 electoral votes.
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Michigan
On Wednesday, Fox News projected Wednesday that Michigan will break for Biden.
This came after Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told CNN on Wednesday morning that there will be a "much more complete picture" of the results in the state by the end of the day Wednesday.
Benson added in a tweet late Wednesday that her state is "not going to let any campaign, candidate, or political party stop our work to ensure every voice is heard."
That was apparently a reaction to an announcement from the Trump campaign Wednesday that it is filing a lawsuit to stop vote-counting in Michigan, claiming that they have not been granted sufficient access to observe vote-counting.
"We understand the heightened focus that our state is under and our processes are under," Benson said. "The bottom line for us is we're just focused on getting this right ... in a way that can withstand any court challenges."
Michigan has 16 electoral votes.
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