tonight, president trump and joe biden locked in a ballot battle. >> the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners. >> we won states that we weren't expected to win. >> now the painstaking task, tallying outstanding votes in swing states. plus one record-breaking moment. >> senator harris and i are on track to win more votes than any ticket in the history of this country. >> but is the path to victory narrows for the president, can he baseless allegations of fraud change the course? >> this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. >> this special edition of "nightline," "your voice, your vote," will be right back.

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don't you have like a hot pilates class to get to or something? [ muffled scream ] stop living with at&t. xfinity can deliver gig to the most homes. ♪ good evening. thank you for joining us. election day has come and gone, but the big question remains. who will be the next president of the united states? a majority of states have answered, but there's still not enough information. for the very latest in one that

became a projected win for the biden campaign today, we go to my "nightline" coanchor juju chang reporting from michigan. >> reporter: there are only a handful of states left to be decided. here in michigan, only a handful of votes left to be tallied with 99% of the votes counted, joe biden projected to win by a margin of about 120,000 votes. that's roughly 10 times the margin that candidate trump won here in 2016. of course, president trump responded by filing a lawsuit alleging among other things that his team was not given meaningful access to vote count centers across michigan. michigan's secretary of state telling abc news that does not really line up with the facts. within hours protesters showed up at a ballot-counting center, though, in detroit, shouting "stop the count." turns out a michigan county gop official had emailed supporters, urging them to stop by and, quote, all hands on deck. now despite all the drama,

michigan is now firmly in the win column for joe biden, who is inching ever closer to becoming the 46th president of the united states of america. byron? >> thanks, juju. now to the nail-biting race for electoral victory. here's abc's trevor ault. >> i'm not here to declare that we've won. but i am here to report, when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners. >> reporter: a country hanging in the balance. an unprecedented and divisive election still undecided. former vice president joe biden breaking the record for most votes of any presidential candidate in u.s. history, now less than 20 electoral college votes away from the presidency. >> there will be no blue states and red states when we win. just the united states of america. >> reporter: the constraints of voting in a pandemic resulting in record mail-in ballots and early voting, methods that take

more time for an accurate count, even with millions of ballots left to be counted in the middle of the night, president trump declaring victory. >> frankly, we did win this election. >> reporter: and alleging, without any basis, that the election was rigged, asking for vote counting to stop in states where he seems to be ahead despite not having any authority to do so. >> this is a major fraud on our nation. we want the law to be used in a proper manner. so we'll be going to the u.s. supreme court. we want all voting to stop. we don't want them to find any ballots at 4:00 in the morning and add them to the list, okay? >> he won't decide who wins. the states that are certifying the election, ultimately the electors, are going to be the ones who elect the president. it's starting to feel like the best that president trump is going to be able to do is simply

undermine faith in the system, so that he can say, i got cheated, and my supporters got cheated. even though there's no evidence to support that. >> reporter: this election, as tumultuous as any in american history. election night starting out predictably, each candidate picking up expected states. >> joe biden is going to win the state of colorado and its nine electoral votes. kentucky will go to donald trump. >> reporter: but as the night ended, not enough information to project multiple battleground states, as ballots are still being counted. the trump campaign today filing lawsuits in michigan, pennsylvania, and georgia, and demanding a recount of the tally in wisconsin. this is not bush versus gore. in bush versus gore, it was so close. a few hundred votes in one state. here you're talking about tens of thousands of votes in multiple states. you can't overcome that with a recount or a claim that 53

ballots were put in the wrong place. it's just not comparable. >> reporter: the governor of pennsylvania pushing back. >> this afternoon, the trump campaign filed a lawsuit to stop the counting of ballots in pennsylvania. that is simply wrong. our election officials at the state and local level should be free to do their jobs without fear, without intimidation, without attacks. these attempts to subvert the democratic process are simply disgracef disgraceful. i'm going to fight like hell to protect the vote of every pennsylvanian. >> reporter: president trump prematurely proclaiming a win in pennsylvania this afternoon. but on the ground in wilkes-barre, pennsylvania, some folks aren't so sure. >> i think he takes luzerne county. i don't think he takes it by as much. >> reporter: wilkes-barre is in luzerne county, a consequential county that flipped red for trump in 2016, helping deliver the keystone state and the white

house. it had previously been a democratic stronghold. this year, it seems to have stayed red. ted wampole says his home is divided. he voted for biden, his wife and son went for trump. >> i'm very conservative, i just see a lot of my personal values in joe biden. i just have a tough time with the way that the president has conducted himself. and that just turned me off personally. >> reporter: he's literally on the front line of democracy, working for the county as it conducts its count of crucial mail-in ballots. >> we know we're playing a historic role in the outcome of this election. and i think luzerne county is shining at this particular moment in time. >> reporter: as the nation anxiously awaits results, "nightline" heard from voters across the country. >> i am feeling nervous. i voted back in september. i voted for joe biden. i voted for trump in 2016. >> boy, it's looking good for

trump. i think that republicans showed up at the polls. >> not my president, oh, i'moh,m nervous. who knows what's about to happen? i am so worried. i didn't think this election was going to be as close as it is, but it's closer than it needs to be. arggh! >> i voted for joe biden because i am an educator, and because i believe in my heart that he will do the right thing for children. >> we're feeling cautiously optimistic at this point. excited to see trump on the board. >> most important i want to see happen is the end to coronavirus. my daughter was one of the 220,000 americans that lost their lives to coronavirus. >> i voted for joe biden and kamala harris, for a number of reasons. first of all, i'm an environmental attorney, so obviously championing climate

change policies and green energy policies is really important to me. >> reporter: abc news' martha raddatz crisscrossing the country over the past few weeks, talking to dozens of voters. >> excited for election day? >> yeah. voting in person. >> what was most encouraging is the civic engagement of this country. there is no one who didn't know about this election. there was no one who wasn't interested in some way about what was happening. the problem is the divide is so, so great. >> reporter: history made in new york state. mondare jones becoming the first openly gay black man elected to congress. >> i was never running for congress to make history, it was always about running to produce tangible results for the community that raised me. for the community that lifted me up out of poverty, that always believed in me, and that continues to believe in me. >> reporter: ritchie torres, the first openly gay afro-latino man

elected to congress. >> it's surreal. it's overwhelming. i never thought as a poor kid from the bronx that i would become a member of the united states congress. >> reporter: "nightline" was with torres in the public housing project he grew up in days before the election. >> the mission in my life has been to advocate for the people who live in public housing, to advocate for the forgotten city. >> we're not asking you to feel sorry -- >> reporter: democrat cori bush became the first black woman to represent missouri after launching her political career during the august 2014 ferguson protest. >> this is a police force that shows up for the protests. >> it wasn't until after michael brown was murdered that i realized that there has to be more to this seat. that's when my eyes started to open, that something is missing. there is a disconnect. and we should have more. >> reporter: bush helping the democrats retain their majority in the house, although that number narrowed with republicans

actually picking up seats. republican women capturing more seats than they ever have in a single night. the gop so far seems to be staving off efforts to overtake their majority in the senate. and as the country moves closer to learning the presidential election outcome, millions of americans are still out of work, struggling financially as a deadlocked congress is unable to deliver another round of pandemic relief. the country still as divided as ever. >> how you heal a nation like this when one side thinks the other side is basically the devil. is an enormous problem. we are all americans. we want this country to succeed. the nation is going to have a lot of healing to do, no matter what. >> our thanks to trevor. coming up, breaking down the road to the prized 270 electoral votes.

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the american people need to have patience, they need to keep faith, and we need to keep counting votes. and any attempt to stop the legal counting of votes i think is something that the republican party really does not have an appetite for, despite donald trump and the misinformation he's putting out there because he's staring down the barrel of defeat and throwing a hail mary with these legal challenges, which i suspect are not going to have standing. have patience, have vigilance, and let the system work. >> amanda, as you know, we are not a patient people, right? biden came out to say he believed he was on track to win the electoral votes. would you agree with his assessment? why or why not? >> i do. i mean, last night, 24 hours ago, we were hearing milwaukee wasn't counted, detroit was h e

having problems, when you look at those areas, that's where biden was moving and pushing his votes, in addition to the voting by mail strategy they had at the beginning, they knew it wasn't done yet. he came out with his steady voice, let's do this, keep the faith. even though it's difficult, you do see the slow trickle of votes coming in going towards biden does help everyone keep the faith, even though it's hard. >> the president has taken to twitter claiming he has won states no one has called, claiming there's a lot of, quote, fraud involved in the counting. is this the way to win an election? >> no, i don't think so. and i'm part of a bipartisan group that's really focused on counting the vote, and let's calmly and carefullily and soberly let the states go through their processes and get the vote counted. we are a 50/50 country. we knew this was going to be a close election in a lot of these states. and we need to have our people have confidence in the -- in

whatever the outcome is. and that will come about by soberly and seriously getting this process done. and i think that is what you're going to see our senators want and to see most of our leaders want. i think that is what ultimately will happen. and i don't think it will take too long. >> as usual, the exit polls put into focus certain segments of hidden america. tara and amanda, what were some of the things that stood out for you in seeing the voter breakdown for the candidates? >> i was actually surprised at florida going for donald trump as much as it did and the collapse of the latino vote for biden in south florida. i think it was a missed opportunity there. you know, florida is florida, but to see the latino vote, particularly latino men, break so much for trump this time around, i think it demonstrates that the democrats have some work to do in that space. but we're seeing what's

happening in arizona, which was traditionally a republican state, looking very good for biden. a different dynamic there. so the regional differences were clear here. >> amanda? >> i think what we are seeing is trump brought out people to vote. he did increase the number of folks who came out to vote for him. something i don't think was expected before. on the latino vote, i am excited that we are having these kinds of conversations. i think anyone who has been studying latino votes for a really longtime, the differences within the community itself are really important to understand. and you are now seeing that truly on display, as in many cases, they are the tipping point in one state or the other. but i got to say, 1 million more latinos turning 18 every year. this discussion is just the beginning of what we're going to continue to see across the country. >> barbara, final question to you. there are many republicans who are hoping for a red wave, many democrats hoping for a blue wave. neither of those things happened. we remain a divided nation.

politically how do we bridge this divide, regardless of who the ultimate winner is, and who do you think might be better at that? >> i think ultimately the american people are a centrist people, center right at times or center left. i'm encouraged that we have republicans retain the senate, but you also have -- i think mitch mcconnell is an institutionalist, someone who will be able to work with, if it's joe biden as president, be able to work with him. people like susan collins, who won her race, who is well known for working across the aisle. i think what i am really excited about is to see, we're going to have the highest number of republican women who are elected, who won some of those tougher seats. we'll have 28 or 29 women and have more diversity. latino women, we also had several latino men who won their races. so we are seeing a little bit more diversity in the republican party. certainly not enough. i'd like to see more. but one of the things we also had on the state level, we did very well in winning 60% of the

state legislator seats. and they are having more diversity. so i think as you see people come up as candidates, you're going to see a more diverse republican party. i think as you look post-trump, what is the party going to look like, it's going to look different. i think our policies are more popular, perhaps, than our current spokesperson might be. and i think that's reflected in how well ultimately republicans ended up doing. but if either side gets pulled to the left or the right, far left or far right, or this populism, i think the american people reject that. they don't want court packing, they don't want radical policies, they want to stick with thiessen terrorist policies. i think you're going to see the next congress working that way. >> democracy is a complicated thing. barbara, amanda, tara, thank you for your time and your insights. we'll be right back with "the final note." prudential helps 1 in 7 americans with their financial needs. that's over 25 million people. with over 90 years of investment experience,

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