Presidential elections in the United States: – Therefore, the figures differ

The exciting presidential elections in the United States are far from over, and vote counting is still ongoing in several US states.

In Dagbladet’s summary, Joe Biden at the time of writing has garnered 253 electoral votes, while Donald Trump has 214. A presidential candidate needs at least 270 to win.

But if you click on the NRK or American FOX News websites, Joe Biden has garnered 264 electoral votes, just 6 votes away from victory.

CAUTION: Postdoctoral fellow in media studies Magnus Hoem Iversen from the University of Bergen believes it is a good thing that media houses are more careful than in previous years when announcing winners. Photo: UiB
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Postdoctoral fellow in media studies Magnus Hoem Iversen from the University of Bergen now explains why media houses have different numbers and why some announce winners and losers before all the votes have been counted.

– There are slightly different ways to calculate this. The media have agreements with different companies that deliver numbers, forecasts and results, and in these companies there are different people, with different ways of calculating and announcing the winner. The choice of the company has a lot to say. Some are more conservative in their approach than others, Iversen tells Dagbladet.

Unexpected drama

– Qualified Divination

Dagbladet receives figures and announcements of state winners from Decision Desk HQ during the presidential election, while NRK automatically declares a state as decided when the Associated Press (AP) has “called” the result in the state.

The current differences between the 264th and 253rd voters’ media outlets for Joe Biden stem from the fact that Arizona stands as a sure Democratic victory for the AP, while Decision Desk has the state registered as Democratic leadership. Arizona has a total of 11 voters.

In the state, votes are still being counted and Donald Trump is gaining ground. Hundreds of thousands of tacit votes have been “found” in various counties across the state. They give the president hope that he can reverse the situation in the historically Republican state, which numbers analysts on Wednesday declared won by Biden.

Iversen explains that the numbers company and the media houses’ own number parsers must base much of their announcements and calculations on guesswork.

– If 85 percent of the votes have been counted and one of the candidates leads well, then it must be evaluated if it is thought that the trend will persist and if it is mathematically possible with a different result. But you never really know. It’s a qualified assumption, because you can’t know for sure until all the votes have been counted, he says.

– Angry Trump named Murdoch

– It seems chaotic

Iversen believes that it is a good thing that the Norwegian and international media have been careful to announce the winners too early, and that it is unfortunate for both the result and the journalism if one has to backtrack on an announced result.

– Some media houses choose to leave a state like Arizona as a winner, others choose to have it as unsafe. It is very stupid to have to backtrack on the result when a winner has been announced. It seems to be more chaotic for media consumers, and all the jumps, especially during this election, can raise fears that the candidates are trying to steal the election. But it’s good to see facts trump the race to be first, he says.

Iversen is surprised at how cautious CNN and the New York Times have been in announcing the winners. With both, Joe Biden has secured 253 voters, while Donald Trump has 214 in the New York Times and 213 in CNN. Arizona is an uncertain state on both lists, while the New York Times has assigned one of the Maine delegates to Donald Trump.

– Also here at home, I think TV2 has been more careful than previous years. They have a tradition of leaving early and are very proud of it. It is very good that journalists are responsible, especially in this situation where it is so even. It’s a responsible and methodically responsible choice of number crushers. It is important that we remember a well-known journalistic expression “if you are the first and you are wrong, you are not the first,” says Iversen.

– Dirty trick

I had to come back

Although Iversen believes that TV2 has not been as quick on the trigger as in previous presidential elections, the media house had to withdraw its announcement of the winner of the elections in the state of Georgia.

Around 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning, TV 2’s number analyzers announced that Donald Trump won Georgia and thus also took all 16 voters, Medier24 writes.

However, it turned out that it was not possible to conclude that Trump had won the state. The count is still going on in Georgia on Thursday, and it is very even among the candidates.

For Medier24, TV 2 Nyhetskanalen’s editor-in-chief Silje Hovland told her the following:

– What happened was that there were more votes left to count than we thought and there were fewer people in Atlanta than we knew. When we saw it, we removed it again. It is clear that there is an incredible amount happening at the same time in such a dense period of time, so there is a lot to go on at the same time. To be safe, we remove it again. We believe this was a responsible action, Hovland told Medier24.