As Election Night in America wound down, the results of the presidential race were not yet clear. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a projected winner between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden had yet to be called by any of the major broadcast networks, as well as the Associated Press.
As of 2:30 a.m. ET, Biden had a 225-213 lead over Trump in electoral college votes, according to the Associated Press. Neither candidate managed to flip any states at the time of writing, though polls showed Biden with an edge in Arizona, a state Trump won in 2016. Democrats also had reason for encouragement in Georgia: Despite a sizable early lead, Trump led Biden by just over 2 points at the time of writing with the state’s remaining 7% of uncounted votes hailing from Atlanta and the surrounding suburbs, an overwhelmingly liberal region.
Trump meanwhile scored significant victories in Florida, bolstered by the conservative Cuban American vote in Miami-Dade county, as well as Ohio and Texas, both of which threatened to turn blue this year.
At least 270 electoral votes are required to win the election. There are still several paths to victory for either candidate, with Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania potentially proving decisive. Election officials have warned that it could take until Friday, or perhaps later, for a final count to be completed. Results could come in earlier than that, but it remains unclear for now.
Biden, 77, was the favorite to win the presidency ahead of the election. On Monday, he had a considerable 89 in 100 chance of winning the presidency, according to the final FiveThirtyEight’s election forecast. The former vice president also held minimal leads in key battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Shortly before 1 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning, Biden delivered remarks to a crowd of supporters at a drive-in event in Wilmington, Delaware. “Your patience is commendable,” he said. “We believe we are on track to win this election.”
“It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare who has won this election,” Biden added. “That’s the decision of the American people.”
Trump, 74, in the midst of a turbulent final year in office that saw the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and racial unrest throughout the country, was the clear underdog. Still, national projections outlined a potential path to his victory. The President campaigned furiously in the final days before the election in toss-up Midwestern states as well as North Carolina.
Around 2:30 a.m. ET, the President appeared on stage in the White House’s East Room and falsely claimed that he won the election despite millions of votes still being counted in key states.
“This is a fraud on the American public… We were getting ready to win this election,” Trump said. “Frankly, we did win this election.”
Even though Trump has previously mentioned utilizing lawyers to help him secure a win, it is unlikely that courts will play a major role in this election.
As the COVID-19 virus continued to surge throughout the U.S. in the months and weeks leading up to Election Day, the possibility of a delayed election call became more plausible among voters and news organizations alike. An unprecedented amount of Americans chose this year to vote by mail, with some states not allowing mail-in votes to be counted until Election Day. Of the more than 100 million early votes that were cast in this election—a record—more than 65 million, or around two-thirds, were done so by mail, according to data from the U.S. Elections Project, an initiative run by University of Florida professor Michael McDonald.
