How Does The Associated Press Call An Election?

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🗓️ 19 September 2024

⏱️ 33 minutes

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Summary

How do some media organizations call an election before it's officially decided? Some have their own election analysts. Others, including NPR, rely on reporting from the Associated Press for breaking news from all around the country. Especially on election night.

As the votes roll in, the AP is regarded as the definitive source for when a state gets called in favor of one candidate or the other. It's how we find out who our next president is going to be.

How exactly does the process work?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Look, raising a teen is tough. You know, it's always been hard to be a teenager and it's always been hard to raise a teenager.
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0:15.0	Listen to the Life Kit podcast from NPR. Many of you probably remember being parked in front of your TV as the votes rolled in on November 7, 2000.
0:35.2	It was election night, Republican George W Bush versus Democrat Al Gore for the presidency.
0:41.6	A big call to make, CNN announces that we call Florida in the Al Gore column.
0:47.6	This is a state. Both campaigns desperately wanted to win.
0:51.6	And by CNN right now is moving our earlier declaration of Florida back to the too close to
1:01.2	call column.
1:02.2	Ah. 25 very big electoral votes are hanging in the balance.
1:10.0	This no longer is a victory for Vice President Gore.
1:14.0	George Bush, Governor of Texas, will become the 43rd President of the United States.
1:19.0	At 18 minutes past 2 o'clock Eastern time,
1:22.0	CNN declares that George... 18 minutes past 2 o'clock eastern time.
1:22.8	CNN declares that George Walker Bush has won Florida's 25 electoral votes.
1:30.0	Despite losing the popular vote by over half a million votes, Bush narrowly edged
1:34.9	outcore by a mere five electoral votes in a presidential race that remains the closest electoral
1:40.1	college margin of victory in the 21st century. The results of that race in Florida
1:44.8	faced legal challenges that made it all the way to the US Supreme Court. How do
1:49.4	some media organizations call an election before it's officially decided.
1:54.1	Some have their own election analysts.
1:55.9	Others, including NPR, rely on reporting from the Associated Press for breaking news from all around
	...

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