By Nikhila Natarajan

New York, Nov 7 (IANS): With a mountain of votes still to be counted, The Associated Press and Fox News called Arizona's 11 electoral votes for Biden. Now, there's 270,000 estimated remaining votes to be counted in Pennsylvania and we're still waiting for a result. The Arizona call and the Pennsylvania stasis is happening in the span of 72 hours.

The Arizona call offers a lens through which to understand the current state of suspended animation, even as the non-AP, non-Fox world still waits to call this race.

From the time AP called Arizona, Biden's lead has shrunk from 9 percentage points to 4.2 and now at 0.92 per cent! Despite the margin split wide open all the way from 9 points to 0.92 points, there are two entirely different electoral maps that continue to exist in the American media universe.

Some have it at 264 for Biden, some are going with 253 and there's this palpable sense that the networks have gotten burnt by the Arizona call mixed in with the need to over-correct as armour against expected backlash from Trumpworld.

Associated Press decided to call Arizona's 11 electoral votes for Joe Biden after it "concluded President Donald Trump could not catch up" based on the remaining ballots, AP Executive Editor Sally Buzbee told IANS.

Somehow, confidence has evaporated all around now, as the Arizona margin has shrunk so dramatically since the race was called.

At 11:15 pm. EST Friday, Biden held a 0.43 per cent edge in the universe of more than 6.5 million ballots cast in Pennsylvania. State law mandates a recount if the margin between candidates is less than 0.5 per cent.

It's not like Pennsylvania is everything for Biden. But it is for Trump. A Pennsylvania loss means curtains for Trump, a Pennsylvania win is sufficient but not essential for Biden. He's leading in Arizona, in Nevada, in Georgia too.

A fresh round of Pennsylvania results are expected in the 9 am EST hour.