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How the Associated Press called Missouri, Mississippi votes right away

How can the media calls races with 0% of precincts reporting?

WASHINGTON — As soon as polls closed in Mississippi and Missouri at 8 p.m. Eastern Time, The Associated Press declared Joe Biden the winner in both states’ Democratic presidential primary.

The AP called Biden the winner over Bernie Sanders even though state officials had yet to release any results from Tuesday’s election.

The news agency did so based on results from AP VoteCast, its wide-ranging survey of the American electorate. That election research captures the views of voters on whom they vote for, and why.

The VoteCast survey showed Biden with a wide lead in both states. Importantly, Biden was leading in all parts of both states. He led among both men and women, as well as among both white voters and African American voters.

Black voters have powered Biden to wins in several states to date in the Democratic primaries, including his touchstone victory in South Carolina late last month.

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In both Mississippi and Missouri on Tuesday, Biden dominated the vote among African Americans -- winning the support of close to three-quarters of African Americans in both states.

With the race narrowed to the two major candidates, AP VoteCast also found that Democratic primary voters in Missouri and Mississippi were more likely to think Biden could defeat Donald Trump in November than could Sanders.

AP VoteCast is conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for The Associated Press and Fox News.

ABC, NBC, CBS and NBC use the Edison Research’s National Election Pool.

RELATED: VERIFY: How does the media call races so early?

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