Elections are not just about winning or losing, they’re also about making changes to our country and its policies. During close elections, a few votes can have a big impact—a few hundred voters in one legislative race can change laws that affect millions of people or decide who controls the state’s legislature.
When a state announces the results of its elections, it often includes unofficial vote counts that have yet to be verified by local officials. Those figures may include early in-person and mail ballots. They may not include the results of any special or run-off elections or recounts. Those numbers are used by media outlets to make their predictions about who will win each race.
News outlets will continue to update their vote count numbers throughout the night and into the days after the election. Different outlets may use different assumptions about their data and may update their predictions at different times. This is because each outlet allocates resources differently and may get updates from some places faster than others. These differences do not reflect inconsistencies in the actual counting process.
After election night, each state has an official process (called the canvass) to examine the informal results that are reported on Election Day and in the weeks afterward to make sure every valid ballot was counted. The state must then certify the results to become final and official. This process can take longer for some races than others—especially those between a President and Vice President, which requires the state to follow additional deadlines set by the Electoral College.