AP Says It Will Call Every Senate, House and Governor Race in the Country

The Associated Press isn't cherry-picking the big races. The news cooperative says it is calling every U.S. Senate, House and governor contest on the board, putting its name behind the whole slate rather than just the headliners.

This isn't a new trick for AP. The outlet first tabulated vote counts in American elections back in 1848, and today it collects results from local election officials across thousands of races nationwide. Those numbers go out as soon as they land.

The actual winner calls come from AP's Decision Team. The rule is simple: a race gets called only when the team is certain the trailing candidates no longer have a path to victory. No projections before the math closes the door.

Getting all of that out the door takes a crowd. Design and development came from Eunice Esomonu, Linda Gorman, Dan Kempton, Humera Lodhi, Katie Marriner, Simran Parwani, Pablo Barria Urenda, Robert Weston and Hyojin Yoo. Research came from Hannah Recht, Ryan Dubicki, Michaela Herbst, Maxwell Clarke and Ariane Vartanian, with photo editing by Tallulah Brown Van Zee.

On the reporting side, Leah Askarinam, Camille Baker, Matthew Klein, Hannah Recht, Maya Sweedler and Robert Yoon filed the work, with project management by Michelle Minkoff Carlson and editing by Linda Gorman and Ashlyn Still.