The votes are in — mostly. Days after polls closed, a dwindling but consequential set of House, Senate and gubernatorial contests remain undeclared by The Associated Press, the wire service whose race calls are treated as the industry standard by broadcasters, newspapers and digital outlets across the country. With control of Congress and several statehouses hanging on the outcome, newsrooms from NPR to local public radio stations and legacy metro dailies are publishing running guides to exactly which races are still in limbo and why.

NPR reported that Democrats are poised to hold a strong majority in the incoming Congress, though it cautioned that "the final numbers are still being determined" as the AP works through the remaining contests. That framing — a clear lean, but not yet a certified result — captures the peculiar limbo of the modern post-election week, when the shape of the next Congress is broadly visible but its precise contours depend on a handful of districts still counting mail, provisional and military ballots.

What Remains Uncalled

The outstanding races fall into three buckets: House districts, Senate seats and governorships. Coverage across outlets has converged on the same structure, even where the details differ by state.

• House: Several districts remain too close to call, with the AP declining to project winners while absentee and provisional ballots are tallied and, in some cases, recounted.
• Senate: A small number of seats remain unresolved, leaving the size — and in some scenarios the control — of the chamber's next majority uncertain.
• Governorships: At least a few state executive races are also awaiting AP declarations, with the Boston Herald among the outlets tracking which Senate and gubernatorial contests have not yet been called.

MSN's election hub has been running parallel trackers, including a map showing "where votes are being counted in Senate and House midterm races" and a running tally of which seats have flipped. SFGate likewise published a guide to the races the AP has not yet called, though its page was intermittently blocked by a client-verification screen — a reminder that even access to the count can be uneven for readers.

New York and New Jersey in Focus

Regional coverage has been especially granular. MSN's New York and New Jersey breakdown highlights races in the two states that remain undeclared, where slow-counting of mail ballots and densely populated districts can push declarations days or even weeks past Election Day. In both states, the pace of counting is a function of law rather than malfunction: mail ballots that arrive on or near the deadline, along with affidavit and cure-process ballots, must be verified before they can be added to the totals.

How the AP Decides to Call a Race

The AP does not project a winner based on early returns alone. Its race callers weigh the share of the vote already counted, the geographic and demographic composition of outstanding ballots, historical turnout patterns and, where relevant, the results of prior recounts. That methodology is why a candidate can hold a narrow lead for days without a call — and why campaigns, rather than newsrooms, are usually the last to concede. For readers, the practical effect is a period in which the balance of power is described in conditional language even as political professionals begin acting on the likely outcome.

"Democrats are poised to have a strong majority in the upcoming Congress. The final numbers are still being determined." — NPR News

Differing Frames Across Outlets

The same story reads differently depending on where you find it. NPR leads with the partisan balance and its implications for governing, treating the uncalled races as the last variable in an already-legible national result. The Boston Herald and SFGate, drawing on wire copy, frame the story procedurally — a public-service checklist of which Senate and governor races lack an AP declaration. MSN's aggregation approach prioritizes utility: interactive maps, lists of flipped seats, and state-by-state breakdowns designed for readers who want to know whether their race is finished. Local public radio stations, including Boise State Public Radio, republish the national NPR guide, placing the national count in a regional context.

That divergence reflects a broader shift in election coverage: the horse-race headline has given way to the service journalism of the count — where ballots remain, how many, and when the picture will sharpen.

Why the Delay Matters

Uncalled races are not merely a media inconvenience. The final size of a majority determines committee ratios, the room a leadership team has to absorb defections, and the leverage individual members hold in negotiations over spending, nominations and investigations. At the state level, an unresolved governor's race can delay transition planning and the staffing of agencies. Certification deadlines, recount thresholds and, in close contests, litigation all sit downstream of the count now underway.

Officials in affected jurisdictions have urged patience, noting that accuracy and speed trade off against one another, and that narrow margins trigger automatic or requested recounts in several states.

A Sidebar From the Campaign Trail

Amid the vote-counting coverage, Wikinews published an interview with former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, the 2012 presidential candidate — a reminder that the ecosystem of election journalism extends beyond the two-party count to the perennial question of alternative candidacies and ballot access, even as the major parties wait on the last few calls.

For now, the story remains open. Readers should expect updates as the AP makes its calls — and, as NPR put it, as the final numbers are determined.