AP has declared winners for countless elections over the years from State legislatures all the way up to the president so how exactly does the AP know who’s won AP has a dedicated decision team of election analysts and researchers preparation begins months before election day analysts study pass election rules track updates to election law and work with our reporters to sharpen their understanding of campaigns once an election starts and let’s look at results as they come in and what remains to be counted they pay close attention to how results compared to past elections and whether votes counted so far were pass on Election Day by mail or in person before election day this decision team is driven entirely by data for example AP makes its own determinations of who has won independently of other news outlets all of this reporting and Analysis is done to answer one question can the trailing candidate catch up to the leader when that answer is unquestionably a no AP then declares a winner