The Associated Press said competitive haste was not the cause of its fumbled call late Tuesday night that New York Sen. Hillary Clinton would win the tight Missouri Democratic primary. The AP partners with the broadcast and cable news organizations in the National Election Project that collects data on election nights.
“There were lots of smart people, experienced people involved in making this call and there was no rush on it at all,” AP executive editor Kathleen Carroll said in a story by the wire service. “We need to understand what was missed in there and how it was missed and learn from it.”
The NEP members all get the same vote totals and exit polling at the same time, but each has its own decision desk that chooses independently when to make projections.