Multiple outlets call Michigan for Joe Biden

Former Vice President Joe Biden is projected to win the state of Michigan and its 16 Electoral College votes, according to multiple reports.

CNN and NBC News called the race around 4:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, with Biden holding about a 70,000-vote lead over President Donald Trump with 99% of all precincts reporting.

Fewer than 100,000 votes remain to be counted, mostly absentee ballots, and those that do remain are from areas of the state with large populations of Democratic voters. As of 4:45 p.m., Biden won 2,684,200 votes and Trump earned 2,617,062, according to estimates from the Associated Press.

The lead for Biden is large enough for the news organizations calling the race to determine that Trump will not be able to catch Biden as the rest of the votes are counted.

Michigan is a crucial battleground state for both campaigns as they race to 270 Electoral College votes with no declared winner in the 2020 presidential election.

Biden's victory is a reversal of 2016 when Trump won the state with a narrow margin, defeating Hillary Clinton by just under 11,000 votes.

On election night, Trump held an early lead in Michigan before mail and absentee ballots were counted. Michigan state law prevents mail-in and absentee ballots from being counted before the morning of the election. A record 5.26 million Michiganders cast their ballots this year, with estimates suggesting more than 3.26 million of those voters cast absentee ballots. The large volume of absentee ballots, caused in part due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, caused a delay before all the votes could be counted. Michigan election officials expected this delay and promised voters that the winner of the election would be officially declared sometime Wednesday.

With Michigan in hand and Wisconsin also called earlier today, Joe Biden leads President Trump in the Electoral College 253-214, according to the New York Times. The path for Trump to win re-election has narrowed considerably. Of the states yet to be called, Trump must win Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania to win re-election.

The Trump campaign has challenged the results from Michigan, filing a lawsuit Wednesday to halt ballot counting until the campaign is given "meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process."

The campaign has also called for a recount in Wisconsin, where Biden was declared the victor with only a 1-point lead.

Results from Arizona and Nevada will not be fully counted until as late as Friday.