As the election results come in, it’s easy to get caught up in speculation. This can increase your stress levels and lead to unhealthy emotional spirals. Instead, try to stay grounded and check in with a variety of trustworthy sources. Research shows that checking multiple sources reduces the likelihood of error. For example, you may want to consider AP and Reuters in addition to your go-to news sites like TikTok or Facebook.
Local election officials are the first to report unofficial results on Election Night. However, these figures often do not include write-in ballots, provisional votes, or military and overseas ballots. It also takes time to tally mail-in and early ballots, and separate the vote totals for in-person and absentee voting. Moreover, these unofficial results only count the ballots that are reported by each precinct.
In the United States, polling is complicated by the Electoral College system, which means that the actual presidential winner is not determined by nationwide popular vote alone. Furthermore, polling data must be aggregated from a wide range of nationwide and state-level surveys, each with different measurement errors and confidence bands. Thus, it is not surprising that polling projections are often off (e.g., Boxell et al. 2021).
Whether or not the outcome is unexpected, most voters will feel some dissatisfaction with the electoral process. Studies have shown that expectations are heavily influenced by partisan biases, and losers may become resentful if they believe that the electoral process did not treat them fairly (Edelson et al. 2017; Levy 2021; Sances and Stewart 2015).