Definitely, I have never seen anything like it.
Theres so many people involved.
Never, certainly that I can remember, has a presidential election been this close.
Voters wait in line in Mecklenburg County, NC to cast their ballots at an early voting locationNathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images
When you have seven battleground states where it is literally a toss-up that just doesnt happen.
This has sort of become the new norm for our elections, right?
said David Chalian, vice president andCNNpolitical director.
Reports in the field.
Expect the unexpected, said Doug Rohrbeck,Fox Newssenior vice president of Washington news & politics.
Everything has been unexpected along the way.
Its to take our time.
Its to educate the audience and to sort of avoid the chaos and confusion that could erupt.
A number of factors make this election different from the past.
We are working hard to be prepared, CBS News Hager said.
But I think were in great shape.
Were going to be programming 24 hours that evening and we certainly will extend that as needed.
Were looking at a 50-50 kind of race.
In endorsing Harris for president,Taylor Swiftcited an image thatfalsely showed her backing Trump.
Such influence operations are expected through the inauguration.
NBC News has Vote Watch, with monitors misinformation and vote irregularities.
Fox News Rohrbeck said that it is always a challenge to identify deepfakes and artificial intelligence.
So were very aware.
There is also the difficulty of discerning actual and consequential incidents at the polls.
Just as important can be putting things in context.
Every presidential election, there are sporadic reports of problems with ballots or long lines.
We just dont know and cant prejudge it.
Biden won the state by just 10,457 votes.
I dont feel any sort of pressure like, Call it our way.
Make our audience happy,' Mishkin said.
Fox News uses data fromVoteCast, developed by the NORC at the University of Chicago and the AP.
Its a probability-based, state-by-state survey of registered voters conducted by mail, phone and online.
As has been the custom, no networks plan to call a state until polls there have closed.
Who is going to win this election?
In Pennsylvania, they are unable to process mail ballots until the polls open on Election Day.
That will impact the ability to make a call.
I wish I had a magic ball, he said.
It is going to take some time, to just understand editorially, what the country is saying.
Thats what makes a race projectable.
Klein said, Our role is going to be just to explain as the night goes on.
This is what we know.
This is what we dont know.
This is what were seeing.
Exit poll data is not gospel, something that can get lost in the anticipation of Election Day.
The data pipe is relying on Decision Desk HQ to make its calls.
Other networks also are planning extensive coverage of the results.
Noticias Telemundo will have a special focus on the Latino vote and races involving Hispanic candidates.
Thats why networks also are preparing for the days and weeks after the election.
One of the things we learned is that there are courts that will deal with this.
In places where there are contested elections, theres a system in place.
Our democracy has put a system in place to deal with challenges.
