Election night maps can make it look as though one party is winning across an entire state, but the picture is not always that simple. A candidate may lead in several counties and still lose the statewide race. A county turning red or blue does not always tell you how many people voted or how close the race really is.
As the 2026 US midterms are happening today, knowing how to read a results map is going to be a useful thing for voters wanting to keep a close eye on the count. The trick is to look past the county colours and focus on the vote totals, the margins and the number of ballots still to be counted. News organisations will be using election data from the AP, DDKHQ and their own reporting teams to track the results and project the winners.
County Lead: The candidate currently ahead of their opponents in a given county. A county lead does not in any way imply that the candidate is going to win the state.
Race Calls: An announcement from a news organisation or election data provider that a candidate has won a particular election. The AP and DDHQ will only make a race call when their analysis indicates that the trailing candidate has no realistic chance of catching up.
Uncounted ballots: The ballots that haven't yet been included in the official results. The election maps will show an estimate of how many ballots are left to be counted and from where they're expected to come.
Michigan's 2024 Senate race is the other example. Mike Rogers (R) won a lot of the counties, but Alyssa Slotkin (D) won the election. Rogers won most of the counties that had fewer votes in them, while Slotkin won the big counties (Wayne and Oakland), which each had about 800k votes.
Bubble maps provide another way of looking at the results. Rather than giving every county the same visual weight, you have larger bubbles for the places with more votes. The colour shows which candidate is in the lead, and the intensity of the colour shows the size of the lead. The closer you get to neutral, the tighter the race is.
The County Leader map shades the areas according to the party of the leading candidate. You can hover over a county or select it from the menu to see the results summary.
Other useful figures are vote share, vote margin and expected remaining votes. Those help to explain whether a candidate who is behind in the count still has a realistic chance of overtaking.
DDHQ collates the numbers from state and county election offices via their automated systems, phone calls and field reporters. They then use statistical models to work out whether the leading candidate has a viable path to victory. Both of those organisations are in a position to change their call if the later counts alter the picture.
As the 2026 US midterms are happening today, knowing how to read a results map is going to be a useful thing for voters wanting to keep a close eye on the count. The trick is to look past the county colours and focus on the vote totals, the margins and the number of ballots still to be counted. News organisations will be using election data from the AP, DDKHQ and their own reporting teams to track the results and project the winners.
What Do the Colours and Bubbles Tell You?
The Associated Press provides interactive election maps that allow readers to examine results by county or reporting unit. Users can hover over a county or select it from a menu to see a summary of the results. Its maps offer three viewing options. It's crucial to know what these three terms essentially mean.County Lead: The candidate currently ahead of their opponents in a given county. A county lead does not in any way imply that the candidate is going to win the state.
Race Calls: An announcement from a news organisation or election data provider that a candidate has won a particular election. The AP and DDHQ will only make a race call when their analysis indicates that the trailing candidate has no realistic chance of catching up.
Uncounted ballots: The ballots that haven't yet been included in the official results. The election maps will show an estimate of how many ballots are left to be counted and from where they're expected to come.
Why Can County Election Maps Be Misleading
Standard election maps shade an entire county either red or blue depending on which candidate is leading in that county. A large county doesn't necessarily have more voters than a small one, though, and that can make the map look very different from the actual statewide result.Michigan's 2024 Senate race is the other example. Mike Rogers (R) won a lot of the counties, but Alyssa Slotkin (D) won the election. Rogers won most of the counties that had fewer votes in them, while Slotkin won the big counties (Wayne and Oakland), which each had about 800k votes.
Bubble maps provide another way of looking at the results. Rather than giving every county the same visual weight, you have larger bubbles for the places with more votes. The colour shows which candidate is in the lead, and the intensity of the colour shows the size of the lead. The closer you get to neutral, the tighter the race is.
What Do the Different Election Map Modes Show
The AP have a number of interactive maps for the Senate and gubernatorial races. Their Ballots Counted map uses bubbles to indicate the number of votes separating the leading two candidates. The Uncounted Votes map gives an estimate of how many votes are still left to be counted in each county or reporting unit. Once more than 99% of the ballots have been counted, it will just display a message to that effect.The County Leader map shades the areas according to the party of the leading candidate. You can hover over a county or select it from the menu to see the results summary.
Other useful figures are vote share, vote margin and expected remaining votes. Those help to explain whether a candidate who is behind in the count still has a realistic chance of overtaking.
How do AP and DDHQ decide when to call a race?
The AP has been counting votes since 1848. For the 2026 midterms, they plan to deploy over 4,000 reporters. Their Decision Team will be looking at the official counts and the counts of the remaining ballots before they declare a winner.DDHQ collates the numbers from state and county election offices via their automated systems, phone calls and field reporters. They then use statistical models to work out whether the leading candidate has a viable path to victory. Both of those organisations are in a position to change their call if the later counts alter the picture.