Explainer · Race calls

How the AP and the Networks Actually Call a Race

When a network or the Associated Press declares a winner, no official has certified anything yet. Here is who makes those calls in 2026, what goes into them, and why some races are called the moment polls close while others wait for days.

Updated November 1, 2026 · Election Tracker Live editorial team · 6 min read · Election Day: Tuesday, November 3, 2026

On election night, results arrive faster than any state can certify them. News organizations fill that gap by counting the vote themselves and declaring winners once the math is settled. Those declarations shape what millions of people hear, so it's worth knowing how they work.

01What a race call is, and what it isn't

A call is a judgment that the candidate in second place has no realistic path left. In the AP's words, "AP does not make projections or name apparent or likely winners." It declares a winner "only when AP is fully confident a race has been won."

A call has no legal force. The official winner is whoever is named when the state certifies its results, a process that runs from about a week to more than a month after the election depending on the state. See state certification deadlines and After Election Day.

02Who counts the vote

The AP has run a national vote count in every presidential election since 1848. For 2026, it says it will tabulate nearly 7,000 races across all 50 states, from Congress and governor down to state and local contests.

According to an AP explainer published through PBS NewsHour, about 4,000 AP journalists collect results from precincts and election offices on election night, and about 1,000 vote-entry clerks enter the totals. Results are checked against county and state websites and electronic feeds.

03Who makes the call

At the AP, race callers are staff who know the states they cover, and editors on AP's Decision Team sign off on every call for president, Senate and governor. The team includes journalists, data analysts and political science experts.

The broadcast networks run their own decision desks. What's new in 2026 is the data underneath them. In October 2025, the AP announced that ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC would join Fox News in using AP election data for the 2026 and 2028 elections, with each network's decision desk analyzing the results independently to call races, TheWrap reported. Those four networks had relied on data from Edison Research, which supplied the National Election Pool, a news consortium formed in 2003; Fox News and the AP left the pool in 2017. Edison Research was acquired by the research firm SSRS the same day the change was announced. Other outlets use other providers; NewsNation used Decision Desk HQ in 2024.

04What goes into a call

• The vote count, studied county by county.
• What's left to count: how many ballots remain, where, and of what type. AP's callers stay in contact with its vote count team about how many ballots may still be outstanding.
• Past results and the shape of the electorate: vote history, registration and turnout data, and demographics.
• The AP Voter Poll: a survey of voters conducted by SSRS for the AP and the major networks. The AP says it does not call races based solely on the poll; it is one input. In some lopsided contests, it can be the final data point that lets the AP declare a winner when polls close. See exit polls, VoteCast and the Voter Poll.

Concessions are a factor the AP may weigh, but it notes that "concessions can be, and have been, withdrawn." More in is a concession legally required?

05Why some races are called the moment polls close

"AP will not call the winner of a race before all the polls in a jurisdiction are scheduled to close." In states that span two time zones, that means waiting for the last scheduled closing, not the first. Our poll closing times guide lists them, and the poll clock counts down.

Once polls close, races where one side has a long record of consistent, convincing wins, and where early vote data and the Voter Poll point the same way, can be called with few or no votes counted. Uncontested races are called as well. A call with "0% reporting" isn't a guess; it's a judgment that the result isn't in doubt.

06"Too early to call" vs. "too close to call"

From AP's explainer on how it calls races (2024). State recount triggers are in our recount thresholds guide; how often recounts change winners is in Recounts in 2026.

Races also wait when a state counts slowly by design, such as ranked-choice tabulations in Alaska and Maine or states that accept mail ballots for days after Election Day. See when will we know who won?

07When calls go wrong

The AP says its standard is 100% accuracy and that its accuracy in recent general elections has exceeded 99.9%. Across more than 11,000 races it called in the 2026 primaries, the AP said it made three mistakes, which it attributed to incorrect information from election officials and a technical issue. If a call is wrong, the AP says it withdraws the declaration in its data feed and publishes a story about the mistake.

Patience is part of the method. The AP did not call the 2000 presidential race, because the Florida margin was too close, and it called the 2020 presidential race four days after Election Day.