Spectrum News is committed to providing accurate, factual information on election results, along with the context and analysis that allows our audience to understand the data and develop informed opinions.

As a network of local news organizations supported by a national team, we are committed to covering the national contests and also the state and local races that are critical to our democracy.   

Spectrum News is a member of the Associated Press and subscribes to AP data for local, state and national election results. The AP has a careful, established process for counting votes, verifying the data and declaring winners on election night and in the days and weeks afterwards. Winners are declared based on actual election data, collected by a network of 4,000 vote count reporters, who are stationed at county election offices and local voting precincts nationwide. That data is then verified by a team of nearly 1,000 vote entry clerks, who follow a strict quality control process. This includes checking all numbers against other sources of vote count information, like state and county election websites.  

When calling a race, the AP does not speculate but waits until it can definitively say which candidates have won, based on vote count, polling research, and other data. There are about 60 people on the AP decision team, whose fulltime jobs involve analyzing election data within the context of local laws.

To track the progress of the vote count on election night, the AP provides an “estimated expected vote percentage” for each context. This is the proportion of the vote that has been counted out of what the AP estimates will be the total number of certified votes, including votes cast on Election Day and in advance, through early or mail-in voting.

Read more about how the Associated Press counts the vote and calculates expected vote.

Depending on the election, our local political journalists will gather data directly from local election officials in races not covered by the AP.  Spectrum News will occasionally declare winners for local races, using verified data gathered directly from local election officials and county and state electronic sources. These calls are made by senior editorial leaders with decades of experience covering local elections in that market and are based on an analysis of the vote totals, including how much of the count is still outstanding. Like AP, Spectrum News only calls a race once the data shows only one candidate can possibly win.