NBC News:: The Nightly News - with Lester Holt

To ensure delivery to your inbox add email@mail.nbcnews.com to your contacts | View in browser

By Dan Donahue, NBC Nightly News

Good Wednesday afternoon. Votes are still being counted in the presidential election, and the campaigns have dispatched teams of lawyers to the battleground states.

Here is what’s in our Nightly Rundown.

Biden wins Michigan, the apparent winner in Wisconsin, NBC News projects.

They're two of the biggest of cliffhangers from Election Night.

NBC News is now projecting Joe Biden the apparent winner Wisconsin, meaning he has won the race but the outcome is close enough that final results may depend on a potential recount or confirmation of the reported vote results.

We are also now projecting Biden the winner in Michigan.

Those states would be significant flips for Biden, and two pieces of the Blue Wall that he is trying to rebuild in the Midwest.

Donald Trump’s campaign has already demanded a recount in Wisconsin, the state the president narrowly carried in 2016.

The legal battle over the election has already begun, with the Trump team filing a lawsuit to stop the count in Michigan.

We’re coming up on 24 hours since the first polls closed on Election Day, but as of this afternoon, the race remains undecided.

Trump did pick up big prizes like Florida and Ohio, but Biden carried Minnesota, New Hampshire, and is leading in Arizona, a state no Democratic presidential candidate has won since 1996.

All eyes are now on Pennsylvania, where it remains too early to call.

Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina are all too close to call, according to NBC News.

Check out our interactive map that shows the candidates’ remaining paths to 270 electoral votes. Visit our NBC News live election blog for the latest updates.

NBC News projects Biden is apparent winner in Wisconsin

Trump falsely claims victory as nation awaits election outcome

With millions of votes still to be counted, the Trump campaign is framing the race in their favor, as the president continues to attack the integrity of the election.

“We feel like the president is in a very very, very good position this morning,” campaign manager Bill Stepien said.

Trump is attempting to cast doubt on the normal vote-counting process, tweeting today that his early leads in several key states are starting to “magically disappear,” and baselessly claiming “surprise ballot dumps” are being counted against him.

Twitter hid that tweet and labeled it as “disputed” and potentially “misleading.”

Democrats were more likely to vote by mail this year, while a majority of Trump’s supporters preferred to vote in-person on election day.

Some states don’t begin processing mail-in ballots until Election Day, like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Michigan doesn’t start until the day before.

So while Trump may have been ahead in states like those early on, he’s seen his leads narrow or evaporate as more mail-in votes are counted.

Even though the winner has still not been determined, Trump prematurely declared victory and made a series of other misleading claims overnight.

“The is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” he said.

While votes cannot be cast after the polls close, it is legal and within voting procedures to continue counting after the polls close.

Hallie Jackson is at the White House for us tonight.

Biden: “It’s clear we’re winning enough states to reach” 270

Biden spoke this afternoon and maintained that he is on the path to victory.

“It’s clear that we’re winning enough states to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency,” Biden said.

“I’m not here to declare that we won, but I am here to report, when the count is finished, we believe, we will be the winners.”

His campaign says they’re emboldened by the results that have come in so far in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.

Campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon slammed Trump’s comments overnight as an “outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect” attempt to “shut down the counting of duly cast ballots.”

Biden also spoke to supporters in the early hours of the morning, urging them to remain patient as the counting moves forward, and maintaining that he is on a path to victory.

“We feel good about where we are,” he said. “I’m here to tell you tonight, we believe we’re on track to win this election.”

Kristen Welker is following all the developments from the Biden campaign.

Biden tells supporters, 'We're on track to win'

Hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots potentially undelivered

The U.S. Postal Service has reported below-average processing rates on Election Day for cities in a number of critical battleground states:

Atlanta 82% Central PA 61% Pittsburgh 66% Detroit 78% Greensboro, NC 72%

That could mean tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of mail-in votes still have not been delivered.

More than half the states in the nation — including the battlegrounds of Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin — require mail-in ballots to be received by Election Day to be counted.

The USPS’s overall delivery rate has fallen from 95 percent to 89 percent since Trump donor Louis DeJoy took over as Postmaster General in May.

The Postal Service blames the pandemic, but Democrats have accused DeJoy of purposely slowing down the mail heading into the election.

Tom Costello is monitoring this developing story.

Democrats losing hope of taking control of Senate

The Democrats’ dreams of seizing the majority in the Senate are diminishing, after Maine’s Susan Collins said this afternoon that her opponent Sara Gideon had conceded the race.

Collins’ seat was one of several the Democrats hoped to flip, but ultimately Republican incumbents like Lindsay Graham and Joni Ernst were able to fend them off, according to NBC News projections.

The Democrats did pick up one seat in Colorado, where former governor John Hickenlooper defeated Republican incumbent Cory Gardner, NBC News projects.

But they also lost a seat in Alabama, where NBC News is projecting incumbent Doug Jones has fallen to former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville.

There are, however, outstanding races in Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan that are either too early, or too close, to call.

NBC News has projected that Democrats will hold onto control of the House, but their majority could shrink once the final count is in.

Kasie Hunt is reporting on the balance of power in Congress tonight.

Watch Susan Collins declare victory in Maine Senate race

Watch us this evening at 6:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. CT on NBC, or check your local NBC station listing. After the broadcast, access Nightly News video on NBCNightlyNews.com or the NBC News app.

This email was sent to: newsletter@newslettercollector.com. This is an automated email. Do not reply directly.