In a US presidential election how are television networks able to say that a candidate won a state when less than 15% of the votes have been tallied?

zbeckabee

They are "projecting," based on the available information: ELECTION 2008 -- TV networks simultaneously declare Obama the winner. The call comes as the polls close in California. The anchors spent much of the night trying -- sometimes in vain -- to keep from calling the race until it was official. "Barack Obama is going to be the next president of the United States," Bob Schieffer said on CBS shortly after 7 p.m., when the network projected that the Democrat had 206 electoral votes. This year, the broadcast and cable networks promised not to project a president-elect before a candidate officially had 270 electoral votes. But that didn't stop anchors and analysts from offering early hints about which way the race was going. http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-networks5-2008nov05,0,619874.story Nov 05 08, 6:49 AM

deepakmr

Psephology is the science of elections. It allows pollsters to have a database of previous elections, their results, swing zones, etc. This helps channels to make projections based on the data available. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psephology Nov 05 08, 7:58 AM