More than 4,000 AP reporters will verify 2026 midterm vote counts
News networks will rely on data from the Associated Press and Decision Desk HQ to declare winners in Tuesday's closely contested elections.
By Jason Lee ·
The Associated Press will deploy more than 4,000 reporters to county election offices and local polling locations across the United States on Tuesday, November 3.
These staff members will gather and verify data for the decision desks at ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, CNN, and NBC News. The AP has counted votes in every U.S. election since 1848. For the 2026 midterms, the nonprofit newsroom will use vote totals and estimates of remaining uncounted ballots based on past voting patterns and early-vote data. The AP calls a race only when the trailing candidate cannot catch up.
Several major outlets will use the AP vote count to make their own projections. Fox News will apply its own statistical modeling, exit polls, and early-vote totals to call all statewide races, as well as control of the House and Senate. CBS News will also make independent calls using a proprietary mix of data analysis and expert judgment. The Wall Street Journal and MS NOW will rely solely on AP race calls. The New York Times uses AP calls for most contests but independently reviews competitive races using precinct-level data and its Needle model.
Other digital outlets will rely on Decision Desk HQ, a firm that collects vote counts from official state sources. Its clients include NewsNation, The Hill, Newsmax, and the social network X. DDHQ uses automated software to check official election websites and collects roughly 80% of all votes through this method or by manually monitoring sites. The remaining counts are collected by reporters on the ground.
DDHQ calculates the percentage of ballots counted by dividing reported votes by its estimated total turnout. It determines remaining votes by subtracting reported votes from this turnout estimate. Final projections require unanimous team agreement and sign-off from Scott Tranter, the head of data science at DDHQ. Tranter told Reuters that the firm is preparing to have several thousand people working on election night to gather data.
Public trust in these calls remains uneven. An October poll for the Medill Local News Initiative and the Alliance for Trust in Media found that while more than 60% of Americans have some confidence in news organizations to report accurate results, only 32% have high confidence. Democrats reported higher trust levels than Republicans.
Retractions of race calls are rare but have occurred. In 2025, DDHQ withdrew a projection in the Seattle mayor’s race. Earlier in 2026, the firm withdrew its call in the Democratic primary for a special election in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District after Election Day vote counts shifted the race. In 2018, the AP retracted a call in California’s 21st Congressional District after Democrat T.J. Cox took the lead in the vote count.
Bloomberg and Reuters will cite race calls from other news organizations rather than making their own. The Washington Post did not respond to requests for comment on its methodology. The first calls are expected to begin soon after polls close in Indiana and Kentucky at 6 p.m. ET, followed by Georgia, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia at 7 p.m.
Source: KELO
