It's finally election day. The race between former President and current Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris appears tighter than ever. The pair go above and beyond in their campaigns to try and seal the popular vote amongst the nation. Anxiety sits at an all time high as people await the results of the election. How long is this going to take?
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The shortest possible answer is that it really depends on a variety of factors. If there is a hefty margin between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump for president, the call from news organizations will be much more swift. However, it doesn't look like there's much headway for each candidate, coming down to the wire. News outlets like CBS News currently report the polls as virtually tied, meaning that we likely won't know for certain who will win by tonight.
So how do these news organizations confidently make their call if so many factors come into play? What makes them confidently call who the next president will be?
How Do News Organizations Make Their Calls For Who is President?
The Guardian effectively explains how news outlets make their calls for the next president. They say that it's important to distinguish that they don't determine a winner. Rather, they 'call' a winner based on a variety of mathematical factors. "Our standard is absolute certainty," David Scott, head of news strategy and operations at the Associated Press tells them. "We don't declare a winner until we are 100% confident that the trailing candidates can't catch up."
They go on to describe a "decision desk" for many of the different news outlets. Different statisticians cobble together a model on how the results will unfold in each state. Ultimately, the anchors are merely vessels in explaining how the numbers are crunched behind the scenes. Once all that is sorted, then we'll know who is the next president of the United States.
