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Hey there, it's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Asma Khalid, I'm covering the 2020 campaign.

And I'm Scott Detreau, I also cover the campaign. We have talked a lot on this podcast about how

different this election season is. That's right. And already over 60 million people have voted

early. They voted either in person or by mail, largely in a response to the coronavirus pandemic.

And a president who has invoked conspiracy theories to call into question the legitimacy of this

system. All of that has made people uncertain about how and when we might actually know the

results of this election. We've talked a lot about how the vote will be counted, but today we

want to talk about how outlets like NPR report on election night, who is one each state and what

goes into that. So we thought it would be a good idea to talk to the folks at the associated press

who NPR and a lot of other news outlets rely on to make that call. And so joining the podcast today

is a special guest. David Scott. Hey David. Hi. So David, we should begin by explaining that you

have kind of a bit of a wonky job, right, in terms of helping folks understand which a state has

been called for which candidate. So let's just start with what your official role is there at AP.

What do you do? What does your team do? Sure. I'm one of the deputy managers at AP. It's my job

...