A day after the presidential election, Mayor Martin Walsh told reporters in a press conference Wednesday that “every vote must be counted” as several states continue processing ballots.

In Boston, 63.51 percent of all registered voters participated on Election day; a total of 274,344 ballots were received. This year's turnout in Boston was slightly below the 2016 turnout of 66.75 percent and 2012’s 65.87 percent.

“The city’s Elections Department will continue to count mail-in ballots postmarked through Election Day, all of which should be arriving in City Hall by Friday,” Walsh said.

“The numbers that we have in Boston are not final. The work is still going on and the results cannot be made official until after the deadline for overseas and military ballots arrive on November 13.”

He added: “It’s also important for us to understand that this is the national situation as well, and many states are still counting ballots.The presidential election is very close in many of those states so we have to be patient and respect the democratic process.”

Walsh said that the tight margin between Former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump “just shows you how divided our country is.”

“After this election, regardless of who wins we have work to do— both the Democrats and the Republicans,” he said, We have to get back to civility in America. We are a divided country in so many different ways.”

When asked about Trump’s 2 a.m. victory declaration, Walsh replied: “The bottom line is that there are a lot of early votes that still need to be counted.”

The mayor said that “no one should be calling to stop the count or talking about fraud while election workers are trying to do their jobs.”

Walsh asked any protesters to express their opinions peacefully and constructively, saying that a final result of the presidential election could come “today, it could be a couple days before we know what the final results are.”

“Let's stay focused on the count and on the states where we are looking to get results so we can understand who is going to be our leader for the next four years.”

Walsh told reporters that while he does expect some demonstrations to take place in the city, he’s “not concerned about violence in the city.”

Police Commissioner William Gross said that BPD officers observed people “voting peacefully at every polling location” yesterday.

As for potential violence, Gross said he “knows it’s a contentious election and that people will voice their opinion” and asked Bostonians to report any suspicious activity.

“We need your eyes and ears. If you see something say something,” said Gross. “We've planned for the worst case scenario to best case scenario and we want to assure people that we do have the assets and the state, local, and federal backup in place to handle anything that may become contentious.”

Added Walsh: “If you are going to march or demonstrate, wear a mask, we’re asking everyone in the city of Boston to wear a mask.”

Walsh reported that 69 new covid-19 cases were reported in the city yesterday.

According to data tracked by the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) for the week of Oct. 25-31, Dorchester is still leading the city with the highest positive rates.

Dorchester zip codes 02122 and 02124 have a 12 percent positive rate; and 02121 and 02125 are at 11.6 percent positivity. Mattapan and East Boston posted positive rates of 10.1 and 10 percent, respectively.

“We need to focus on the work we have to keep doing to get through the pandemic and rebuild our country,” said Walsh, “We are still getting new cases every single day.”

Last week, more people in the city were tested with fewer positive results.

“Our positive rate went down to 7.2 percent. That’s good to see but it’s too soon to say that we stop the trend,” the mayor said, “Our numbers continue to be higher than where we need them to be in Boston and hospitals have been seeing more activity.”

Walsh is in full support of Gov. Charlie Baker’s most recent covid-19 public health advisories, which includes a stay at home advisory from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and limits on indoor and outdoor gathering capacities.

“These measures are there to help us stop the spread of the virus. They are not easy to do, but they respond to the case trends we’ve seen,” he said

“I urge everyone to comply with these new advisories. I understand that it’s a hard time for small businesses. But if we don’t get this trend under control we’ll be in a far worse situation in a few weeks and months.”