By Nikhila Natarajan
New York, Nov 6 (IANS): It gets wilder by the minute. Now that two news outlets Fox and The Associated Press are holding firm to their 264 electoral vote count for Joe Biden and the rest of the US news media live in a parallel bubble that has called 253 for Biden, what happens if another six electoral votes land for Biden?
At AP and Fox News, that would take Biden to 270, the winning number in electoral college math. For the non-AP, no-Fox universe, Biden will still be short of 270 and Trump will still be in the game. The president believes he still has a real path to 270, although he needs to get lucky in nearly every single state that's left to be called.
So, will AP and Fox News call the election at that time while the rest don't? IANS has reached out to AP and awaiting a reply.
That possibility of a result and non-result existing at the same moment is so very 2020! If that happens, does one camp go out and declare victory based on those two calls?
At this time, these are very real question marks over a still-undecided election. They are not the only ones though. Trump's campaign, citing counting irregularities, is rushing in with legal cases in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.
The Arizona call is central to the wild possibilities that still exist. That's where the discrepancy of 264 and 253 emerges.
AP and Fox called Arizona for Joe Biden at a time when 450,000 votes remain to be counted. The Donald Trump campaign has jumped right in, protesting the early call. The state has a long political history of voting Republican.
When AP called the state, Biden led by 9 percentage points, his lead has now shrunk to 4.2 percentage points.
"The AP called the race in Arizona for Biden at 2:50 am EST Wednesday after an analysis of ballots cast statewide concluded Trump could not catch up in the ballots left to be counted."
The Trump campaign thinks it has a real chance in the state and is tearing into the early calls.
Fox News has stuck to its Arizona call, even during televised phone-ins with Trump campaign officials. The broadcaster's "decision desk" made that call. Arizona will update at 9 p.m. Thursday.
Just for context, the US does not have a national election commission which announces the winner. Organisations with resources at scale on the ground coordinate with state officials to plot the dots.