US News Outlets Detail Midterm Election Race Call Methods
Major news organizations rely on AP and Decision Desk HQ for vote counts and projections.
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
US News Outlets Detail Midterm Election Race Call Methods
Photograph: The Straits Times (embedded from source)
What this story says
- US television networks and digital outlets will project winners in midterm elections before all votes are counted.
- Most outlets rely on vote counts from the Associated Press or Decision Desk HQ.
- Some news organizations, like Fox News, will make their own projections using AP data and independent analysis.
- Race calls can be retracted if vote counts shift significantly, as has happened with both AP and DDHQ in the past.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 6 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 1 of the 7 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .
Trust
68/100
Craft
68/100
Hype
15/100
7 sources · methodology
Thin on the left so far
None of the 6 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
News organizations across the United States are preparing to announce winners in the midterm elections, often before every vote has been counted. The majority of television networks and digital news outlets depend on either the Associated Press (AP) or the election data firm Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) for vote counts.
Some outlets, including the Wall Street Journal and MS NOW, will exclusively use AP data for their race calls. Others, such as Fox News and CBS News, will develop their own projections by combining AP vote counts with exit polls, early voting totals, and their own statistical modeling. The AP has been counting votes in US elections since 1848, employing thousands of reporters to verify results. DDHQ, conversely, gathers data from official state sources and uses statistical analysis, modeling, and expert review to project winners, with its clients including NewsNation and X.
Disagreements on Race Call Methods
While most major outlets utilize the same AP vote count tabulation, the methods for calling races vary. The AP calls a race only when the trailing candidate cannot mathematically catch up. DDHQ, on the other hand, requires unanimous team agreement and sign-off from its head of data science for final projections. Both AP and DDHQ have a history of withdrawing race calls when subsequent vote counts have altered the projected outcome, such as in past mayoral and congressional races.
What the coverage left out
None of the right-rated digests mention the specific confidence levels in news organizations' reporting of election results, nor the finding that Democrats are more trusting than Republicans, as reported by Devdiscourse. The right-rated digests also do not include details about the specific number of reporters the AP will deploy for the midterms or the methodology DDHQ uses to calculate the percentage of ballots counted.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 2 times, most recently on 1 Nov 2026, 22:15, and will add the sides that appear.
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated left has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Centre
2 rated outlets
- The centre-rated reports highlighted the reliance of most US television networks and digital outlets on two primary providers for vote counts: the Associated Press and Decision Desk HQ. These reports detailed that some outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal and MS NOW, would depend solely on the AP. They also noted that other organizations, like Fox News and CBS News, would create their own projections using AP data alongside their own analysis and models. The full report from Devdiscourse explained that the AP has been counting votes since 1848 and that DDHQ uses statistical analysis and expert review. Both centre-rated reports mentioned that race calls can be retracted, citing past instances involving AP and DDHQ.
Right
4 rated outlets
- The right-rated reports focused on how news organizations, particularly Fox News, will make their own race calls. They stated that most networks use either the Associated Press or Decision Desk HQ for vote counts, with some outlets like the Wall Street Journal and MS NOW relying exclusively on the AP. The digests indicated that outlets such as Fox News and CBS News would make their own projections based on AP vote counts, exit polls, and their own statistical modeling. The reports also mentioned that race calls can be withdrawn, referencing past instances where both AP and DDHQ have retracted projections.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover US News Outlets Detail Midterm Election Race Call Methods?
- Of the 6 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 0% are rated left, 33% are rated centre, 67% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 7. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is US News Outlets Detail Midterm Election Race Call Methods left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 6 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of US News Outlets Detail Midterm Election Race Call Methods biased?
- US News Outlets Detail Midterm Election Race Call Methods is one event reported by 7 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting US News Outlets Detail Midterm Election Race Call Methods?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered US News Outlets Detail Midterm Election Race Call Methods?
- 7 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- How do US news outlets determine election winners before all votes are counted?
- Most US television networks and digital outlets rely on vote counts from either the Associated Press or Decision Desk HQ. These organizations use statistical analysis, modeling, and expert review, alongside vote totals and past voting patterns, to project winners when a race is statistically certain.
- Can election race calls be changed after they are made?
- Yes, race calls can be retracted. Both the Associated Press and Decision Desk HQ have withdrawn projections in past elections when subsequent vote counts shifted the lead away from the initially projected winner.
- Which organizations provide vote counts for US news outlets?
- The two primary providers for vote counts used by US news organizations are the Associated Press (AP) and Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ). Some outlets use only AP, while others use DDHQ or a combination of data sources for their projections.
Read it at the source
7 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Centre
2Right
4- How the Fox News Decision Desk Calls Races (opens wfmd.com in a new tab)
- US Midterm Elections Explained: How News Networks Decide When to Call a Race (opens Modern Diplomacy in a new tab)
Modern Diplomacy — is Modern Diplomacy biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Explainer-How US news organizations will make midterm race calls - Regional Media News (opens regionalmedianews.com in a new tab)
regionalmedianews.com — is regionalmedianews.com biased? Our profile of this outlet
- Explainer-How US news organizations will make midterm race calls (opens The Straits Times in a new tab)
The Straits Times — is The Straits Times biased? Our profile of this outlet
Not rated
1How did this read?
About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.
