The Associated Press (AP) is preparing to tabulate results for approximately 7,000 races in the upcoming general election on Tuesday, November 3, 2026. The news organization will track contests for national congressional seats, state legislative positions, and local offices including governors, mayors, and school boards. As of Wednesday, October 28, 2026, nearly 40 million voters had already cast ballots through early and mail-in voting.
David Scott, AP vice president of election services, stated that the organization will employ close to 5,000 people for the event. This workforce includes 4,000 stringers—reporters who visit local election offices to collect results directly from officials or as they are posted. The AP also utilizes electronic feeds from states and counties and monitors online postings to verify data across multiple sources.
To determine when a race can be called, the AP estimates total turnout by using data from election officials regarding advanced ballots and Election Day polling place figures. Scott noted that the methods of voting have shifted significantly over recent decades. In 1972, 95% of Americans voted at neighborhood polling places on Election Day, whereas currently, fewer than 50% do so, with a majority opting for mail-in or early in-person voting.
The scale of the operation involves approximately 5,000 workers monitoring 7,000 distinct races. This means for every race being tracked, there is a specialized effort to reconcile multiple data points—such as comparing a stringer's report from a local office against an electronic feed from a state agency. An ordinary reader will notice these results reflected in real-time updates on news broadcasts and websites starting the evening of November 3, 2026. These updates directly inform citizens about the status of their local school boards and the composition of the federal government.
The shift toward early voting, with more than half of the electorate now voting before Election Day compared to only 5% in 1972, establishes a precedent for how election results are processed and reported. The knock-on effect is that the "big math problem" of estimating turnout now relies heavily on advance data from election officials rather than solely on Election Day exit polling. Following the tabulation on Tuesday night, November 3, 2026, the final certification of these results will be handled by the thousands of local jurisdictions that run the elections, according to the AP. Official results are typically certified in the weeks following Election Day.