When should the media start projecting election results?

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Given that there has been a lot of discussion of this lately, I thought we might as well dedicate a thread to it. The idea is to craft some sort of consensus around this issue so that nobody walks away feeling cheated.

If we could all elaborate beyond two-word responses, that would be great. Three days.

[Lief 🗽]

ASAP. Let the partisan spin-doctors and hacks pretend that a race isn't over yet, but I look to the Atlasian media for the hard truth.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

whenever they want - as long as they make it clear that it's just a projection.

[SWE]

When it becomes obvious that one candidate is guaranteed to win.

[Adam Griffin]

As far as calling races go ("results" should always be displayed/projected, as tallies are constantly changing and never final until the booth closes and DoFE says so)...

When:

(Current lead or margin > [# of outstanding active voters for loser - # of outstanding active voters for winner])

(I think I did that right)

[Maxwell]

As far as calling races go ("results" should always be displayed/projected, as tallies are constantly changing and never final until the booth closes and DoFE says so)...

When:

(Current lead or margin > [# of outstanding active voters for loser - # of outstanding active voters for winner])

(I think I did that right)

This.

[Flake]

As far as calling races go ("results" should always be displayed/projected, as tallies are constantly changing and never final until the booth closes and DoFE says so)...

When:

(Current lead or margin > [# of outstanding active voters for loser - # of outstanding active voters for winner])

(I think I did that right)

This.

[Prince of Salem]

When it becomes obvious that one candidate is guaranteed to win.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Well, cinyc had made a good point that no RL media calls an election when the votes are still being casted.

[Cranberry]

Well, cinyc had made a good point that no RL media calls an election when the votes are still being casted.

Seriously though, I wonder how far we can relate to RL here, as RL elections also don't have the possibility to count votes before the end. Part of what Atlasia makes interesting is this "look bore leads by 3 votes; oh no, now TNF is a vote behind...", and if that means some races will have apparent winners early on, well, so shall be it, I'd say.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Well, cinyc had made a good point that no RL media calls an election when the votes are still being casted.

Seriously though, I wonder how far we can relate to RL here, as RL elections also don't have the possibility to count votes before the end. Part of what Atlasia makes interesting is this "look bore leads by 3 votes; oh no, now TNF is a vote behind...", and if that means some races will have apparent winners early on, well, so shall be it, I'd say.

Did CNN called Florida for Gore before polls actually closed?

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Well, cinyc had made a good point that no RL media calls an election when the votes are still being casted.

Seriously though, I wonder how far we can relate to RL here, as RL elections also don't have the possibility to count votes before the end. Part of what Atlasia makes interesting is this "look bore leads by 3 votes; oh no, now TNF is a vote behind...", and if that means some races will have apparent winners early on, well, so shall be it, I'd say.

Did CNN called Florida for Gore before polls actually closed?

Yes. The rules back then were different, networks were allowed to call states as long as most of the polls were closed. So they called Florida before some panhandle polling places closed, they called Texas when some El Paso polls were still open, Michigan was called while some UP polls were still open, etc. After the florida call debacle of 2000, the networks and the AP were sued into changing their rules to only allow for calls once ALL state polls are closed.

[Potus]

Different partisan rags should call races according to which is most beneficial to their party.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

[quote author=Senator Cranberry link=topic=207864.msg4498681#msg4498681
Seriously though, I wonder how far we can relate to RL here, as RL elections also don't have the possibility to count votes before the end. Part of what Atlasia makes interesting is this "look bore leads by 3 votes; oh no, now TNF is a vote behind...", and if that means some races will have apparent winners early on, well, so shall be it, I'd say.
[/quote]

This was my thought as well. Given the multiple divergences of Atlasia from real life, using actual standards for election coverage is a very risky business. As you said, RL networks don't start counting votes until after the polls close: but if we did that here, the speed with which official election results are tabulated here means that there wouldn't be any point in covering the election at all.

Personally, I'm inclined to agree with those who said that projections should be issued based on turnout rates. If we're two days into the election and nearly every active voter has already made it to the polls, I don't see a reason to postpone projections at that point. If the race is neck-and-neck and votes are coming in regularly, that's different, and obviously it would behoove media sources to abstain from calling the race in that scenario.