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The process that leads to Blitzer saying those words is careful and complicated.
It involves both real-time results and information from exit polls. CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS work with the polling firm Edison Research in what is known as the National Election Pool for results and exit polling data. Fox News and the Associated Press have a separate arrangement.
CNN's Brian Stelter recently interviewed Washington Bureau Chief Sam Feist on "Reliable Sources" about how CNN projects races and how the process will be different this year. A transcript of that conversation, edited slightly for length, is below.
Separately, I also spoke with Jennifer Agiesta, CNN's director of polling and election analytics, who runs the network's decision desk. Keep reading for her views.
This year is different
BRIAN STELTER: This is -- Sam, this is, what, your eighth presidential election at CNN, right?
SAM FEIST, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Right. 1992 was the first one.
STELTER: There's a lot that hasn't changed in terms of the decision desk process. What is the biggest X factor this year that makes you and your colleagues think we need to explain this more about how the election works?
FEIST: This is going to be an election like no other. You've heard that over and over. But I'm not sure that the counting or reporting of the votes are going to be a whole lot different. In fact, I think there's every reason to believe it's going to be orderly.
View Trump and Biden head-to-head polling
Obviously, this year, because of the mail-in ballots, as a result of the pandemic, it could take a little bit longer, right? It takes longer to count mailing ballots. They have to be opened. They have to be processed. Some states don't begin processing mailing ballots until Election Day, so it could take a little longer.
But I really believe that if we don't have a winner on election night, there's a very good possibility that we're going to know the answer on Wednesday or Thursday because the vast majority of votes will have been counted by then.
How do we get election returns?
STELTER: Let's get into the weeds about the counting. So the local precincts in the states, they count -- they count the votes. And then what happens with the news media, thousands of individuals decentralized across the country that are getting that data and feeding it to you and your colleagues of the decision desk?
FEIST: That's right. Local officials across the country at the county, city, township level, or sometimes at the state level, they count and publicly report the votes. And then all across the country, the National Election Pool and the Associated Press, for that matter, send out reporters to learn about and report the votes.
The votes come back to a central tabulating center for us, and then we of course, report them to the -- to the viewers. And that happens throughout the night, and then it will continue happening and always does after election n
