Editor’s note: This story will be updated with new information and analysis as results become available.

As of Friday 11:04 p.m.

Still with no results, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden takes to the stage to remind Americans the importance of unifying the country. Biden said his campaign is on track to win over 300 Electoral College votes after receiving over 74 million votes.

“The purpose of our politics, the work of the nation, isn’t to fan the flames of conflict but to solve problems […],” Biden said. “We may be opponents but we are not enemies.”

Biden has a lead in four of the six outstanding states, which includes Arizona by 0.9 percent and Georgia by 0.1 percent, while votes continue to be counted. 

Zack Bonner, political science lecturer, said as of current results, unless something major happens, Biden is in the position to win. Biden said he rebuilt the blue wall after winning Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday and growing a lead over President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.

“I don’t know if you could say he has 100 percent built back the blue wall, but he has done a very good job,” Bonner said. 

Biden’s margins for these states are larger than Trump’s from 2016. Bonner said even though the margins are better for Biden, it is clearly an area, among others, Democrats still need to focus on.

“My responsibility as president will be to represent the whole nation,” Biden said. “I will work as hard for those who voted against me as those who voted for me, the job.”

Biden said the majority of the country has given him a mandate for action on COVID-19, economy, climate change and systemic racism. Biden also reminded listeners of the recent spike of COVID-19 and the lives lost. 

“We both know tensions can be high after a tough election, one like we have had, but we need to remember to remain calm and patient,” Biden said. “Let the process work out as we count all the votes.”

As of Thursday 12:07 a.m.

President Donald Trump accused Democrats of utilizing voter fraud to steal the election from him and said there will be litigation. 

“We think we will win the election very easily, we think there is going to be a lot of litigation because we have so much evidence, so much proof, and it is going to end up perhaps at the highest court in the land we will see,” Trump said. “We think there will be a lot of litigation because we can’t have an election stolen.”

Trump attributed this thievery to mail-in voting, claiming it has “destroyed our system.”

“It makes people corrupt even if they aren’t by nature but they become corrupt, it is too easy,” Trump said. “It is too easy, they want to find out how many, the votes they need and they seem to be able to find them, they wait and wait and then they find them and you see that on election night.”

Mack Shelley, chair of the political science department, said Trump’s accusations about mail-in voting and poll suppression are not valid and the majority of Trump’s allegations are rejected by judges or have minor successes and have often been inconsistent. 

Since election night, Trump has argued to stop the counting of votes in places like Pennsylvania and Georgia while arguing to continue counting in Arizona and said this mail-in fraud happened in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Georgia. 

“It’s getting to be to a point where I will go from winning by a lot to even down a little bit,” Trump said.

Trump also accused Democrats of taking hundreds of millions of dollars from Wall Street bankers and special interest while his major donors consist of everyday American citizens. 

While Trump does receive a chunk of small individual contributions (<$200), 54.71 percent of his funding came from large contributions, according to Open Secrets.

“Democrats are the party of the big donors, the big media, the big tech it seems,” Trump said. “And Republicans have become the party of the American worker and that is what has happened.”

Shelley said this is Trump’s attempt at using a right-wing populist appeal to claim the Democratic party is run by the rich, most elite to appeal. 

“It is giving him a wedge, in particular, to be able to slice off a huge chunk of the white working class but it is that kind of argument combined with sometimes a really overtly racist appeal,” Shelley said.

Trump went on to claim the Republican Party is the party of inclusion, stating he has won the largest share of nonwhite voters than any Republican in history, this was among the list of many other Republican accomplishments this election including defending the U.S. Senate, although no party has the majority yet.

Democrats poured millions of dollars into Senate races. They had hoped to flip seats in states like South Carolina, Kentucky and Iowa where they were all unsuccessful. 

As of now, Joe Biden leads in electoral votes. Shelley said while he does see results favoring Biden, if there is a Republican Senate majority then passing legislation becomes much more complicated for Democrats. 

“The mechanics for governing for Biden will not be very smooth, my guess is he won’t be able to accomplish very much,” Shelley said. 

Biden told reporters Wednesday he is confident that when votes are counted, he will come out on top.

“And now, after a long night of counting, it is clear we are winning enough states to reach 270 electoral votes to win the presidency,” Biden said. 

Shelley said as of the current results, odds lean in Biden’s favor.

“I think out of a Biden administration you would expect some early efforts to try and build bridges to Republicans,” Shelley said.

Biden also called for unity and said it was time to stop treating opponents as enemies. 

“This will not be my victory alone or our victory alone, this will be a victory for the American people, for our democracy, for America,” Biden said. “There will be no blue [or] red states if we win, just the United States.”

Biden then added this was not him declaring victory, but when voting is done, he will be the next president. During his address, Biden also discussed the current state of the election and the role of the presidency.

“Yesterday once again proved democracy is the heartbeat of this nation, just as it has been for the last two centuries, even in the face of the pandemic,” Biden said. 

This comes after Biden won Wisconsin and Michigan with more votes than Trump did in 2016. Voter turnout has exceeded many expectations with over 150 million people casting a ballot during this election. 

“If we had any doubts, we shouldn’t any longer about a government of, by and for the people is very much alive in America,” Biden said. “Here, the people know power can’t be taken or asserted. It flows from the people and it is their will that determines who will be the president of the United States and their will alone.”

Biden said he is confident about his home state of Pennsylvania, which currently has 93 percent of votes reported with Biden trailing behind Trump by less than 3 points. If Biden won, he would be one of four presidents to beat an incumbent.

“We have had our hard campaigns before,” Biden said. “We faced hard times before, so once this election is finalized and behind us, there will be time to do what we have always done as Americans, put the harsh rhetoric of the campaign behind us to lower the temperature to see each other again, to listen to one another, to hear each other again.”

6:57 p.m. Wednesday

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has now locked down the state of Michigan by 1.3 points — though it didn’t come easy.

The win came after a night that resembled 2016 for Democrats, when President Donald Trump won Michigan by 0.3 percent along with Wisconsin, a state Biden claimed earlier today.

Although these were battleground states, Zack Bonner, lecturer in the political science department, said Trump’s margins from 2016 and this year are not great enough to signify any demographic shifts. Biden is currently ahead of Trump, based on most recent results, but this election was not the clean sweep election Democrats had expected. 

“The polarization we are seeing is reflected in the electoral map, I would assume would stay similarly in the near future at least,” Bonner said. “I don’t think in the next few presidential elections that we will see any landslide victories, I think it will probably be fairly close races. I think it will come down to demographic shifts in a handful of states and whether or not specific campaigns can get that demographic out to vote.”

Bonner said an important shift in this election was the Latinx/Cuban American vote gravitating toward Trump. In 2016, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton carried Miami-Dade County by almost 30 points. In comparison, Trump was down by 7 points from Biden in Miami-Dade County but still won the state of Florida.

“Democrats in the past have treated that demographic like a monolith where they all kind of vote the same way but it seems that the Trump campaign put some effort into courting those voters and it seemed to work,” Bonner said. “That’s probably the biggest shift we have seen so far.”

Florida is a crucial key to the Electoral College, with a growing population and 29 electoral votes. Still, Trump is trailing Biden by 39 electoral votes but neither of them have made it to 270 to take the White House, as votes are still being counted. 

3:08 p.m. Wednesday

There’s no sleep in election land, as margins for the presidential election become stressed while counting continues. 

Joe Biden wins Wisconsin after a nail-biting race, according to the Associated Press. President Donald Trump has plans to “immediately” request a recount in Wisconsin, said Trump’s campaign manager according to AP. Biden’s win reclaims one of the battleground states for Democrats that went red in 2016.

Biden’s win comes after a flux in results throughout Tuesday night and into the early hour of Wednesday. Trump claimed victory after results from Wisconsin and Michigan both leaned in his favor, but votes were still being counted for both states.

Ryan Hurley, president of Iowa State College Republicans, said Trump should not concede and should request a recount due to discrepancy in not only Wisconsin but Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. 

“I need to bring this to several courts and bring these people who tried to rig the election to jail,” Hurley said. “You look at overnight at about 4 a.m., suddenly, about 138,000 votes were added entirely for Biden, that doesn’t happen. It doesn’t matter if you are in the bluest area of the country.”

Currently, Biden holds a sliver of a lead over Trump in Michigan with 96 percent of votes reported but with less than 1 percent margin. Biden is currently leading in Wisconsin, too, with a margin of less than 1 percent, according to results from AP, reported by National Public Radio.

Votes are still being counted, and Tuesday night only proved this race is too close to call. Results in Georgia and North Carolina currently favor Trump, but ballots are still continuing to be processed. Biden’s home state of Pennsylvania still only has 64 percent of estimated votes reported but shows Trump is ahead. 

Karen Kedrowski, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, said one of the most important takeaways as of now is the record-high voter turnout for both Republican and Democrats during a pandemic.

“High voter turnout is very good for the health of our democracy,”  Kedrowski said. “The next things we need to do in terms of the health of our democracy is to count all the voters that are cast.”

Kedrowski said she is dismayed by calls to stop the count of votes. Each state has different voting laws, which dictate when mail-in ballots can begin to be processed.

“What is good for democracy is to have a healthy, vibrant democracy who turns up to vote,”  Kedrowski said. “And then, to make sure every single vote is carefully and accurately counted.” 

4:30 a.m. Wednesday

President Donald Trump announced a premature victory after recent election results show tighter margins than expected while outstanding states still linger.

Talk of states like North Carolina, Florida and Texas, all were possibly swinging blue for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, then heavily leaned in favor of Trump as over 90 percent of votes are reported. This was enough for Trump. 

“Millions and millions of people voted for us,” Trump said early into Wednesday morning. “A very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people.”

Trump also claimed fraud has been committed and said it was an embarrassment for the country. 

“Frankly, we did win the election,” Trump said as votes continued to be tallied. 

Trump said he would go to the U.S. Supreme Court and he wants to stop “all voting.” Republican Election Lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg told CNN Trump’s claims are a disservice not only to the law but to all the Republican men and women on the ballot today.

According to the Associated Press (AP), it is still too early to declare a winner as results do not match information available to AP. Neither Trump nor Biden have secured the 270 Electoral College votes as of 4:01 a.m.

Biden made a hopeful announcement late on election night prior to Trump’s speech.

“We believe we are on track to win this election,” Biden said. “We know because the unprecedented early vote, we are going to have to be patient until the hard work of tallying votes is finished, and it ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot.”

Mack Shelley, chairman of the political science department, said Trump is doing better than most people would have anticipated and that the election seems to be somewhat of a replay of 2016 as of results from 11:20 p.m.

“We will have to wait and see, and we won’t know for quite a while, but [it] actually does seem [like] Biden is in some real trouble now,” Shelley said earlier in the night around 11:15 p.m. “What could have been a relatively easy victory just isn’t going to be that, it is going to be by the skin of his teeth.”

Throughout the election, the Biden campaign tended to have smaller events or virtual forums in attempts to adhere to social distancing standards. Shelley said Biden did not campaign to the extent of Trump’s upbeat, large, in-person rallies that could have resonated with voters. 

“The Democratic Party is good at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory,” Shelley said. “The Democrats just seem to have an absolute genius for screwing things up and not being able to hold on to a lead or not being able to connect with voters in a favorable way.”

Ryan Hurley is the president of Iowa State College Republicans and said he was apprehensive at first but votes look fantastic for Trump as of results from around 9:30 p.m.

“You start to think, ‘Maybe Biden will win,’ but then you are seeing the actual people speak instead of pollsters and looking at the betting market, and it shifted massively,” Hurley said.

Shelley said early results can distort states creating a blue or red mirage, and when results are finalized, things can change. Early election polls portrayed Biden carrying Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, states that went red in 2016. Shelley said Biden will need to win these to be able to win, which will only come with final results.

“In terms of having sort of expressed high hopes to win Florida, turn Texas Blue, win North Carolina, that is basically not happening,” Shelley said as of results from around 11:20 p.m. “And what is going to happen in the Midwest, we don’t know.”