As the US election results slowly pure in, one of the areas of confusion is that different media outlets are showing different results for the electoral votes.

The president is elected by winning at least 270 electoral college votes, not the outcome of the popular vote. Because there is no centralised federal election system, it has become tradition in the US that “decision desks” at media organisations make a call that states have been won by one candidate or the other when enough votes have been counted.

States that are too close to call – such as Nevada and Georgia at the moment – remain in the balance until a network “calls” them.

For example, The Guardian uses the data collected and analyzed by the Associated Press (AP) news agency as the source for when they call election results. There are a number of other highly reputable election decision desks in US media, including NBC, Fox News and others. They may call races earlier or later than AP. US networks obviously use the decisions from their own desks – other channels may chose to follow one, or wait for two desks to call a state before they count it.

This year, Arizona has brought this into sharp relief. The Guardian’s current total of 264 electoral votes for Joe Biden includes the fact that AP has called Arizona for the Democratic nominee. Not all decision desks have yet.

Associated Press, AP has issued this guide to all of the states it has called. This is what it says about Arizona:

The AP called the race at 2.50am EST Wednesday, after an analysis of ballots cast statewide concluded there were not enough outstanding to allow Trump to catch up. With 80% of the expected vote counted, Biden was ahead by 5 percentage points, with a roughly 130,000-vote lead over Trump, with about 2.6m ballots counted. The remaining ballots left to be counted, including mail-in votes in Maricopa county, where Biden performed strongly, were not enough for Trump to catch up to the former vice-president.

With the current trend in the mainstream media, following indications showing the bombardment of fake news alongside corrupt media, it is almost hard to get believability that can be said to be objective and unbiased.

Colorado voters approved Proposition 113 this week to join a national pact that will elect a president based on the popular vote in place of the Electoral College.

“Officially called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, by joining the group, Colorado would pledge to give all of its electoral votes to the national popular vote winner,” according to KDVR.

The state currently has nine electoral votes but is expected to pick up a tenth because of its rapid population growth, the outlet said.

However, the compact will only go into effect “once enough states have joined to ensure that they will control the outcome of the election,” according to Colorado Public Radio (CPR):

The battle over how Colorado will allocate its electoral votes in the future started with a bill in the 2019 legislative session. Democrats pushed hard for the idea that joining the compact would bring more fairness to presidential elections, by giving each vote across the country equal weight. They argue the Electoral College encourages candidates to focus on a handful of swing states — of which Colorado is no longer one — while ignoring most of the country.

Two Republican officials who tried to repeal the law said the impact of a national popular vote would “erase the influence of rural areas in favor of vote-dense cities and suburbs,” the CPR article read.

Despite the concerns, Democrat State Sen. Michael Foote claimed the national popular vote was “a very straightforward concept.”

“One person should always equal one vote, and the presidential candidate who gets the most votes should win the election,” he continued, according to Fox News.

However, former Republican state House Speaker Frank McNulty said the state’s votes should be decided by its residents, adding, “They were tricked by California billionaires, who spent millions of dollars to buy our votes for president.”

“This is going to reduce Colorado’s clout, and it’s going to reduce our influence on issues like transportation, water, health care and funding for our military bases,” McNulty concluded.

President Donald Trump made significant strides in traditionally Democrat-held counties on or near the Texas border in Tuesday night’s election. Biden lost more counties than almost any Democrat candidate in Texas’s history, according to a political consultant interviewed by Breitbart News.

Statewide, Biden only won 21 of the Lone Star State’s 254 counties — 12 of these in the state’s border region.

“There is a systematic bias in the Democrat world that pigeonholes people into voting certain ways,” Dave Carney, chief political consultant for Texas Governor Greg Abbott, told Breitbart Texas Wednesday afternoon. “There is a belief that if more Latinos voted, more Democrats would get elected.”

Tuesday, more people, including Texas Hispanics, voted and yet, Republicans continued to win. Results for Republicans actually improved in many counties south of San Antonio, Carney explained.

In 20 Texas counties located on or near the state’s border with Mexico, President Donald Trump won eight, according to numbers widely reported on the day after the presidential election. This is up from only three counties won by the 2016 Trump campaign. While these counties that run from Brownsville to El Paso remained predominantly Democrat, President Trump increased his number of votes in 19 of the 20 counties. He only lost ground in El Paso County when compared to 2016 results.

In contrast, Joe Biden’s numbers only increased in seven of the 20 counties and dropped in 13 counties.

Statewide, Biden only won 21 of the Lone Star State’s 254 counties — 12 of these in the state’s border region.

President Trump mobilized Texas voters in this region by delivering on his promises regarding economic growth and border security, Carney said.

“Trump’s performance with Latino voters was impressive,” Carney stated. “In many counties, he doubled his 2016 turnout.”

More people voted, he said, and Texas is redder than before.

The counties surveyed include, in no particular order, Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, Zapata, Webb, Willacy, Kenedy, Brooks, Jim Hogg, Dimmit, Maverick, Presidio, Val Verde, Brewster, Hudspeth, Culberson, Jeff Davis, Terrell, Kinney, and El Paso.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.