After months of buildup, news outlets finally have the chance to report on election results

UNDATED (AP)- The answer may or may not come on Tuesday, but news organizations that have spent months reporting on the presidential campaign between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump finally had the opportunity to sift through actual results.

Broadcast, cable news networks, digital news outlets’ sites and one streaming service — Amazon — all set aside Tuesday night to deliver the news from their own operations.

“The future of American democracy is on the line tonight,” ABC News’ David Muir during his network’s coverage.

Little was obvious from the early numbers and exit poll results in key battleground states. Networks reported that Republicans were encouraged by early signs from Georgia, and Democrats similarly saw positive signs from Pennsylvania, but neither was determinative.

Anchors warned viewers that it would take time for results to be known.

“We’ve got days,” said MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. “We’ve got weeks. We’re tireless.”

Fox analyst Karl Rove carried a whiteboard saying “Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania,” attesting to the importance of that state — and saluting the late Tim Russert of NBC News, who famously used the same prop to point to Florida in the 2000 election.

Actual results were a relief to news organizations that had weeks — and an excruciatingly long day of voting — to talk about an election campaign that polls have repeatedly shown to be remarkably tight. The first hint of what voters were thinking came shortly after 5 p.m. Eastern, when networks reported that exit polls showed voters were unhappy with the way the country was going.

It’s still not clear whether that dissatisfaction will be blamed on Harris, the current vice president, or former president Trump, who was voted out of office in 2020, CNN’s Dana Bash said.

Trying to draw meaning from anecdotal evidence

Otherwise, networks were left showing pictures of polling places Tuesday and trying to extract wisdom from anecdotal evidence.

“Dixville Notch is a metaphor for the entire race,” CNN’s Alyssa Farah Griffin said, making efforts to draw meaning from the tiny New Hampshire community that reported its 3-3 vote for Harris and Trump in the early morning hours.

MSNBC reporter Jacob Soboroff talked to voters waiting in line outside a polling place near Temple University in Philadelphia, where actor Paul Rudd was handing out water bottles. Soboroff was called on by one young voter to take a picture with herself and Rudd.

On Fox News Channel, Harris surrogate Pete Buttigieg appeared for a contentious interview with “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade.

“Is this an interview or a debate?” Buttigieg said at one point. “Can I at least finish the sentence?”

Former NBC News anchor Brian Williams began a one-night appearance on Amazon to deliver results, and he already had one unexpected guest in the California studio where he was operating. Puck reporter Tara Palmeri was supposed to report from Trump headquarters in West Palm Beach but was denied credentials to attend by the former president’s team.

Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita described her as a “gossip columnist” in a post on the social media site X. Palmeri told Williams she had accurately reported some anxiety within the Trump camp about who was voting early.

Amazon said Palmeri was replaced at Trump’s Florida headquarters by New York Post reporter Lydia Moynihan.

Neither Axios nor Politico would immediately confirm reports that some of their reporters were similarly banned, and the Trump campaign did not immediately return a call for comment.

New York Times strike affects an election night fixture

One notable election night media fixture — the Needle on The New York Times’ website — was endangered by a strike by technical workers at the newspaper. Despite the concerns, the Needle was working early on election night.

As its name suggests, the Needle is a graphic that uses voting results and other calculations to point toward the likelihood of either presidential candidate winning.

At 9 p.m., it rated the race as a tossup, with the chance of winning pushed ever so slightly in Trump’s direction.

First introduced in 2016, it became nightmare-inducing for supporters of Democrat Hillary Clinton, who the Times determined had an 85% percent chance of winning the election. Readers watched as the Needle moved from forecasting a “likely” Clinton victory at the beginning of election night, to “tossup” by 10 p.m. to “leaning Trump” at midnight. Trump won the election.