''Decision Desk HQ'' is an American website that focuses on reporting election results in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The company's president is Drew McCoy. ''Decision Desk HQ'' uses an

application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how t ...

(API) to get election results at the same time as they are published on websites provided by election officials. ''Decision Desk HQ'' was the first major election reporting organization to call the

2020 United States presidential election The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and the junior U.S. senator from California Kamala Ha ...

for Joe Biden.

History

''Decision Desk HQ'', originally named ''Ace of Spades Decision Desk,'' was founded in 2012 by Brandon Finnigan as an alternative to what he deemed "slow" election calls by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

. It has called major races since the 2012 United States elections, and it first became known for calling the upset defeat of

House Majority Leader Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives, also known as floor leaders, are congresspeople who coordinate legislative initiatives and serve as the chief spokespersons for their parties on the House floor. These leaders are ele ...

Eric Cantor Eric Ivan Cantor (born June 6, 1963) is an American lawyer and former politician who represented Virginia's 7th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2014. A Republican, Cantor served as House Minori ...

during his reelection bid to

Virginia's 7th congressional district Virginia's 7th congressional district is a United States congressional district in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The district is currently represented by Democrat Abigail Spanberger, first elected in 2018. 2016 redistricting The Virginia L ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

. In 2020, ''Decision Desk HQ'' was considered one of nine "official sources" for election results by

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and provided election results to ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'', ''

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

'', '' Vox'' and ''

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...

''. ''Decision Desk HQ'' was the first major election reporting organization to call the

for Joe Biden. The call was made shortly before 9 a.m. ET on Friday, November 6th. It made this call after projecting that Biden's lead in outstanding mail-in ballots from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

left incumbent

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

with no realistic path to win Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes. McCoy told ''Vox'' that the great majority of mail-in ballots from Pennsylvania were from heavily Democratic areas around

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. According to McCoy, Biden was winning the mail-in vote in those areas by a margin large enough to make his lead in the state insurmountable. By ''Decision Desk HQ''s accounting, adding Pennsylvania to Biden's total gave Biden 273 electoral votes, three over the threshold to make him president-elect. ''Vox,'' who partnered with ''Decision Desk HQ,'' called the election for Biden shortly after. Statistician

Nate Silver Nathaniel Read Silver (born January 13, 1978) is an American statistician, writer, and poker player who analyzes baseball (see sabermetrics), basketball, and elections (see psephology). He is the founder and editor-in-chief of ''FiveThirtyEight' ...

praised ''Decision Desk HQ''s call and hoped other sources would follow suit. During the 2022 United States elections, Decision Desk HQ provided election data to media outlet

NewsNation NewsNation is an American subscription television network owned by the Nexstar Media Group, and is the company's only wholly-owned, national cable-originated television channel. The channel runs a mixture of entertainment programming (consistin ...

, ultimately calling control of Congress on November 15, 2022, 6:13 pm EST, a day before other media outlets.

Decision Desk HQ News

In 2021, ''Decision Desk HQ'' announced the creation of ''Decision Desk HQ News'' and the subsequent acquisition of its first site: ''Elections Daily''. The new undertakings are designed to expand Decision Desk HQ's local news and international elections coverage.

References

External links

* {{official website, https://decisiondeskhq.com 2012 establishments in the United States Aggregation websites American political blogs English-language websites Internet properties established in 2012 Data journalism American political websites

History

Decision Desk HQ News

See also

References

External links