The Associated Press’s election results page shows the estimated share of the vote in each state and county as well as its national total. The site also displays the AP’s race ratings and “calls” of the predicted winners. These numbers are based on AP analysis and will fluctuate as the counting continues.
Reporters for the news media collect unofficial results in real time at local counting locations and other sources, including government websites. They put a lot of effort into their work and sometimes cooperate to keep each other informed. As a result, most news outlets have similar vote counts at any given moment, but small differences can be due to the allocation of resources or how fast some places report results.
This is normal and expected. Previous research has shown that people’s expectations about an outcome are influenced by their partisan biases and other factors, such as projections from poll aggregators with odds largely in favour of their preferred candidate.
Moreover, it can take several days—or even weeks in cases of recounts—before all ballots have been counted and the winning candidates are officially declared. That’s the reason it’s important for people to know that early returns can differ from final results. Only official results are considered legitimate and the certifying process takes place in each state’s chief election office, often called the secretary of state. You can find a list of these offices and their contact information here.