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Quit Looking at Inaccurate Election Maps. Watch Ballots Getting Counted In PA Instead

Want to show your kids what democracy in-action looks like? This is it.

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Most parents probably couldn’t help themselves and stayed-up late last night waiting for election results. Now that it’s the morning of November 4, 2020 plenty of parents are locked into an endless cycle of refreshing a map on their phones. The thing is, the map that you get when you just use Google to search for “Election 2020 results” is a map created by the Associated Press. That map does not reflect the hundreds of thousands of ballots that remain uncounted in the big battleground states, especially Pennsylvania. In fact, Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt said that there are hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots yet to count. He also said that PA expects to have their elections results “in the next couple of days.”

So, while it’s possible the election may get “called” today, it’s also super likely that it might not. The maps generated by AP, CNN, the New York Times, and other spots are projections of which presidential candidate will probably take those states. They are not “official results.” And if you have older kids watching the election results with you — and talking about the election — it might be nice to remind them of that. CNN, the Associated Press, and President Trump himself do not decide the election. People voting do.

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