''Decision Desk HQ'' is an American website that focuses on reporting election results in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
. The company's president is Drew McCoy.
''Decision Desk HQ'' uses an
application programming interface (API) to get election results at the same time as they are published on websites provided by election officials.
''Decision Desk HQ'' was the first major election reporting organization to call the
2020 United States presidential election for
Joe Biden.
History
''Decision Desk HQ'', originally named ''Ace of Spades Decision Desk,'' was founded in 2012 by Brandon Finnigan as an alternative to what he deemed "slow" election calls by the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. n ...
.
It has called major races since the
2012 United States elections
The 2012 United States elections took place on November 6, 2012. Democratic President Barack Obama won election to a second term, though the Republican Party retained control of the House of Representatives. As of 2020, this is the most rece ...
, and it first became known for calling the upset defeat of
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor during his reelection bid to
Virginia's 7th congressional district in
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
.
In 2020, ''Decision Desk HQ'' was considered one of nine "official sources" for election results by
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
and provided election results to ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econ ...
'', ''
BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. ...
'', ''
Vox'' and ''
Business Insider
''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German pub ...
''.
''Decision Desk HQ'' was the first major election reporting organization to call the
2020 United States presidential election for
Joe Biden.
The call was made shortly before 9 a.m. ET on Friday, November 6th. It made this call after projecting that Biden's lead in outstanding mail-in ballots from
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...
left incumbent
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of ...
with no realistic path to win Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes. McCoy told ''Vox'' that the great majority of mail-in ballots from Pennsylvania were from heavily Democratic areas around
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
and
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
. According to McCoy, Biden was winning the mail-in vote in those areas by a margin large enough to make his lead in the state insurmountable. By ''Decision Desk HQ''s accounting, adding Pennsylvania to Biden's total gave Biden 273 electoral votes, three over the threshold to make him president-elect. ''Vox,'' who partnered with ''Decision Desk HQ,'' called the election for Biden shortly after. Statistician
Nate Silver
Nathaniel Read Silver (born January 13, 1978) is an American statistician, writer, and poker player who analyzes baseball (see sabermetrics), basketball, and elections (see psephology). He is the founder and editor-in-chief of ''FiveThirtyEight ...
praised ''Decision Desk HQ''s call and hoped other sources would follow suit.
During the
2022 United States elections, Decision Desk HQ provided election data to media outlet
NewsNation, ultimately calling control of Congress on November 15, 2022, 6:13 pm EST, a day before other media outlets.
Decision Desk HQ News
In 2021, ''Decision Desk HQ'' announced the creation of ''Decision Desk HQ News'' and the subsequent acquisition of its first site: ''Elections Daily''. The new undertakings are designed to expand Decision Desk HQ's local news and international elections coverage.
See also
*
Decision desk
References
External links
* {{official website, https://decisiondeskhq.com
2012 establishments in the United States
Aggregation websites
American political blogs
English-language websites
Internet properties established in 2012
Data journalism
American political websites