Amid the likelihood of prolonged election result delays, U.S. TV networks are bracing to keep viewers informed while facing unprecedented scrutiny to avoid errors and counter misinformation.
In 2020, it took four anxious days to announce Joe Biden’s victory. This year, the focus will once again be on swing states as experts wait for results to come in gradually, aiming for the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win.
“It’s going to come down to seven key swing states, and in many cases, we won’t have enough data to project results until late that night, the next day, or even days later,” said Joe Lenski, executive vice president of Edison Research.
Edison will be supplying exit polls, projections, and vote counts for networks like ABC, CBS, NBC News, and CNN. Adding to the complexity, different regions have varied voting and counting procedures. For example, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, two crucial swing states, will only start counting early votes on Election Day, November 5.
Without official results for potentially weeks, TV networks will play a critical role in projecting whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris carries each state. Behind the scenes, network decision desks—teams of statisticians and analysts—will face intense pressure, as they feed data to anchors relying on incomplete early results.
“The stakes are extremely high,” said Costas Panagopoulos, a Northeastern University political science professor and former member of NBC’s decision desk. “There’s tremendous pressure to provide viewers with timely information, but the risk of prioritizing speed over accuracy is significant.”
In 2020, Fox News was the first network to call Arizona for Biden just hours after polls closed, a decision that surprised many and angered the Trump camp. Media organizations are now deploying more advanced analytics that combine exit polls with early voter surveys to avoid credibility pitfalls, such as the infamous 2000 Florida projection for Al Gore, which networks later had to retract.
Ben Ginsberg, an election lawyer, warned of a potential repeat of the 2020 “red mirage,” where an early Republican lead diminished as Democratic-leaning mail-in ballots were counted. Ginsberg noted that efforts to encourage early Republican voting could alter this pattern but cautioned against any early victory declarations, advising viewers to dismiss them as “political posturing.”
Throughout this extended vote count, networks will work to maintain audience trust and accuracy, countering an anticipated wave of misinformation. CNN will bring back its “magic wall” with John King analyzing trends visually, while NBC has outlined its plans to collect data from over 100,000 polling locations and ensure accuracy in projecting Senate and House results from 610 races.
Lenski affirmed that networks will provide more data, maps, and analysis than ever before, underscoring that delays in counting votes are normal and not indicative of conspiracy.
