The race between the former vice president and incumbent Republican President Donald Trump has been tight, with vote counts continuing Saturday in Georgia. Trump is expected to win Alaska and North Carolina, where counts are expected to continue into next week, but neither of those states have been called yet.
“We have to remember the purpose of our politics isn’t total unrelenting, unending warfare,” Biden said Friday night in Delaware. “No, the purpose of our politics, the work of our nation, isn’t to fan the flames of conflict, but to solve problems, to guarantee justice, to give everybody a fair shot.”
“I am honored and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in Vice President-elect Harris,” President Elect Joe Biden said in a statement. “In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of Americans voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America. With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation.”
President Donald Trump has not conceded, stating that his campaign will ensure that election laws were fully upheld.
“The American people are entitled to an honest election: that means counting all legal ballots, and not counting any illegal ballots,” Trump said in a statement. “This is the only way to ensure the public has full confidence in our election.”
Trump also stated that his campaign has filed a lawsuit in Arizona, alleging that Maricopa County rejected ballots cast in person on Election Day.
“Poll workers struggled to operate the new voting machines in Maricopa County, and improperly pressed and told voters to press a green button to override significant errors,” said Matt Morgan, Trump 2020 campaign general counsel. “The result is that the voting machines disregarded votes cast by voters in person on Election Day in Maricopa County.”
The Associated Press early Wednesday morning declared Biden the winner in Arizona, flipping a longtime GOP state that Trump won in 2016. Biden led in that state, but the margins have narrowed in Arizona as more votes have been counted. Other media outlets did not declare Arizona.
Still, with AP declaring Biden the winner in Pennsylvania today, it puts him above the needed 270 Electoral College votes even without Arizona.
Biden had focused heavily on winning Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, three states that Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016.
Votes by mail in Pennsylvania could not be processed for counting until Election Day, under the state’s laws, meaning millions of ballots had to be examined, processed and counted since Tuesday. Election experts had warned that process could take several days, making a winner unclear until then.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the process in Pennsylvania. In a press conference this morning, Trump’s legal team also criticized votes by mail, claiming fraud.
“It’s time for America to unite. And to heal,” Biden said. “We are the United States of America. And there’s nothing we can’t do, if we do it together.”