A decision desk is a team of experts that one or many US news organizations assemble to analyze incoming data about election results and project winners on election day. Decision desks use

exit polling An election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. A similar poll conducted before actual voters have voted is called an entrance poll. Pollsters – usually private companies working for ...

data as well as officially reported results as they come in, to project and then "call" the winners of elections on election night.

History

Exit polling data was gathered by

Voter News Service The Voter News Service was an exit polling consortium formed in 1990 by six major U.S. news media organizations. Its mission was to provide results for United States presidential elections, so that individual organizations and networks would not h ...

which existed from 1990 to 2003, and which was disbanded due to disastrous mistakes in the 2000 presidential election and in the 2002 elections. Afterward they formed the National Election Pool which produced skewed results in the 2004 US presidential election and in the 2016 presidential elections.

Megyn Kelly Megyn Marie Kelly (; born November 18, 1970) is an American journalist and media personality. She currently hosts a talk show and podcast, ''The Megyn Kelly Show'', that airs live daily on SiriusXM. She was a talk show host at Fox News from 20 ...

was made famous when she walked backstage to

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is own ...

' decision desk team during the broadcast of the

2012 US presidential election The 2012 United States presidential election was the 57th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. Incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, incumbent Vice President Joe Biden, were re-e ...

results, when

Karl Rove Karl Christian Rove (born December 25, 1950) is an American Republican political consultant, policy advisor, and lobbyist. He was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush administration until his resignation on August ...

contradicted the team's prediction that Obama would win.

References

{{reflist Elections in the United States Television news in the United States