How the networks decided to call election for Biden

NEW YORK » After a nearly four- day wait, the cable news networks and broadcast news divisions called Joe Biden the winner over President Trump in the 2020 race for the White House within a 15-minute window that began 11:24 a.m. EST.

CNN was the first with the call, followed by NBC and MSNBC 55 seconds later. CBS came in at 45 seconds after 11:25, followed by ABC at 30 seconds after 11:26. All four organizations use the same vote count and exit polling data to make their determinations on the outcome of the race.

The Associated Press and Fox News, which collaborate in their voter survey data, came in slightly later, with AP calling it at 11:28 and Fox News at 11:40.

Fox News also called Pennsylvania and Nevada for Biden, simultaneously putting him at a higher number of electoral votes — 290 — than other outlets. The network had also called Arizona for Biden. The state has not been included in the totals on the other networks, which have the president- elect at 273 electoral votes.

According to the Fox News tallies, Biden would hit 270 even without Pennsylvania, one of the states where Trump has been threatening to mount legal challenges.

T he broa dc a st networks and CNN cited Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania — which reached 34,000 votes on Saturday morning — as the reason for their calls.

“Look, we got just enough vote in, in order to call Pennsylvania, even if it may slip into a recount,” NBC News political director Chuck Todd told viewers. “We think it’s just, mathematically, nearly impossible for the order of finish to change in Pennsylvania.”