Good morning. I've been up since six trying to write but I peek occasionally at the ballot-counting. An interesting situation seems to be developing.
All the news sources agree that Biden has reached 253 electoral votes and two biggies — Associated Press and Fox News — have also awarded him Arizona, which has 11 electoral votes. So on A.P. and Fox, he's at 264 and has been for some time. The other networks and scorekeepers have him at 253 because they don't think Arizona is settled yet. Polling analyst Nate Silver has said, essentially, that while Biden may win Arizona, it's too soon to make the call that A.P. and Fox have made.
Now, it's looking like Biden is about to take Nevada, which has six electoral votes. If you're A.P. or Fox, you might be reticent to add that to his total because that would mean he'd be at 270 and victorious…which would make it especially embarrassing if he turns out not to have won Arizona. Saying "We were wrong about Arizona" would be way less a screw-up than having to say "We were wrong about who won the presidency."
So we may be about to see the situation where the A.P. and Fox are saying Biden is at 264 since he's won Arizona but hasn't won Nevada while everyone else is saying he's at 259 because he has won Nevada but hasn't won Arizona. Aren't you glad you aren't in that line of work?