California’s race for governor was called almost as soon as the polls closed Tuesday night — while the public results screen still showed 0% reported for both candidates.
The Associated Press declared Democrat Xavier Becerra the winner over Republican Steve Hilton at 8:00 p.m. Pacific. The immediate call, paired with a scoreboard showing no public vote totals, created an image that looked astonishing on its face and quickly spread online.
Here is the moment that had people asking how a winner could be named before the first numbers appeared:
This is wild. The AP already called the race for Xavier Becerra over Steve Hilton, but the screen shows 0% reported for both of them. How do you declare a winner when there are no numbers on the board? pic.twitter.com/dnAkJnYp1B
— Clown World ™(@ClownWorld) November 4, 2026
The distinction matters: the 0% graphic meant the public-facing results display had not yet populated. It did not mean no ballots had been cast or that election workers had already certified a final count.
California conducts its elections overwhelmingly by mail. Millions of ballots had been submitted before Election Day, even though the first public batch of totals had not appeared on that particular screen.
The Associated Press explains that its decision team can call a race at poll close using voter-survey data, historical voting patterns, registration figures, advance-vote information and other election research.
AP says the central question is whether the trailing candidate has any realistic path to overtake the leader. In a statewide contest where the available data points overwhelmingly in one direction, its analysts do not always wait for public vote totals to appear before making that media call.
That call is not the same thing as an official certification by California election authorities. It is a news organization’s determination that the race is no longer competitive.
AP also says it never calls a contest before the final statutory poll-closing time. For major statewide races, its decision team must agree that the available voter data and political history leave the trailing candidate without a path to victory.
AP’s own California election guide said about 90% of the vote in the state’s 2022 governor’s race was cast early or by mail. It also noted that counties generally release those ballots in large batches after polls close.
The guide said the first 2024 California returns appeared 12 minutes after the polls closed, and that the count did not reach the halfway point until nearly two hours later.
It also cautioned that early mail results tend to favor Democrats, while Republicans often gain ground as more in-person Election Day ballots enter the count.
A 0% television graphic and an empty ballot box describe two very different things. Still, the visual of a winner banner sitting above two rows of zeroes was guaranteed to fuel skepticism — especially in an election climate where public trust is already strained.
The later returns showed why AP was so confident. KQED’s live AP results feed showed Becerra leading Hilton by roughly 28 percentage points Wednesday morning, with nearly 60% of the estimated vote counted.
At that snapshot, Becerra had nearly 5 million votes and 63.9% of the total, compared with about 2.8 million votes and 36% for Hilton. The feed recorded the race call at exactly 8:00 p.m. Pacific on November 3.
Becerra, a former California attorney general, congressman and Biden administration health secretary, will succeed term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom. He will become the first Latino elected governor in California history.
The incoming governor will take charge of a state with a roughly $350 billion annual budget and projected long-term deficits, while facing continuing fights over housing, gasoline prices, homelessness and wildfire risk. Becerra campaigned on affordability and promised aggressive resistance to the Trump administration.
Reuters summarized the historic result here:
Hilton entered the general election as a political outsider carrying President Donald Trump’s endorsement. The former Fox News host campaigned on lower costs, cheaper gasoline, public safety and a break from years of one-party Democratic control in Sacramento.
He faced steep political terrain. California has not elected a Republican to statewide office in two decades, and Becerra spent the campaign tying Hilton closely to Trump.
When Hilton finally took the stage in Garden Grove, he acknowledged the result but made clear that he did not view the campaign as the end of the fight. He thanked supporters, wished Becerra well and pointed toward future efforts to break the Democratic supermajority in Sacramento.
KTLA captured Hilton’s election-night remarks:
There is a legitimate explanation for how AP made the call with 0% showing: the decision was based on data beyond the public tally, and the later vote count produced a huge Becerra lead.
There is also a legitimate lesson for the institutions presenting election results. If a winner is going to be declared before a single public number appears, the method must be explained immediately and clearly.
Otherwise, the only thing millions of viewers see is a race declared over before the scoreboard has even switched on.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
The post AP Calls California Governor’s Race With 0% Reported—Then Steve Hilton Takes The Stage appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.
Continue reading...
[H/T 100PercentFedUp]
