Associated Press: Joe Biden wins 2020 presidential election

Moss Brennan, Reporter

Xanayra Marin-Lopez

After four days of vote counting, The Associated Press has called the 2020 election for former Vice President Joe Biden  and Kamala Harris with 284 electoral votes.

Biden, a Democrat, will become the 46th president after he beat incumbent Republican President Donald Trump. 

“I am honored and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in Vice President-elect Harris,” Biden said in a statement. “In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of American people voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America.”

Biden said it’s time to “put anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation,” now that the campaign is over.

After the AP called the state of Pennsylvania for Biden, he surpassed the 270 electoral votes required to win. The AP has not called the race for either candidate in North Carolina, Nevada, Georgia and Alaska. 

Harris becomes the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent elected to serve as vice president. She previously served as the district attorney for San Francisco and as California’s attorney general.

This marks the 10th time a sitting United States president has lost re-election, with the last occurring in 1992 when George H. W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton. 

The popular vote currently stands at about 74.8 million for Biden and about 70.6 million for President Donald Trump. 

The AP has not called North Carolina for either candidate. Trump is leading by about 76,000 votes. The outstanding absentee and provisional ballots are enough that Biden could come back and win, but those numbers will not come in until Nov. 13 when the county boards of elections canvass votes. 

The future of the election remains uncertain as Trump baselessly claimed widespread voter fraud in key states — like Pennsylvania, Georgia and Wisconsin — that he led on election night, but lost as mail-in ballots were counted. Trump has promised to take cases to court, but so he and his campaign have not offered any evidence to their voter fraud claims. 

In a statement, Trump said the election is far from over and the campaign would start prosecuting “our case” in court on Monday.

“The American people are entitled to an honest election: that means counting all legal ballots, and not manufactured, or cast by ineligible or deceased voters,” Trump said in a statement. “I will not rest until the American people have the honest vote count they deserve and that democracy demands.”

There is no evidence votes that are currently being counted are illegal.

Biden and Harris will be inaugurated to office on Jan. 20.