The AP hasn't called control of the House yet. Here's why

I'm lisa Mascaro. I'm the Chief congressional correspondent at the Associated Press democrats have been able to keep their majority in the U. S. Senate. It's been *** narrow hold for the past two years and it's going to be tight moving forward. What this means is President joe biden has top allies right there on capitol hill. U. S. Senate can be *** grounds for bipartisan dealmaking. It can also be *** backstop against anything that is coming from the U. S. House that biden doesn't want. Senate democrats have been able to make some progress on biden's agenda in the past two years but looking ahead to these new next two years, it could be much more difficult, both because of the situation in the House and as senators look ahead to the 2024 presidential election, Senate democrats were able to accomplish quite *** bit with joe biden in the first two years of his presidency, they passed the infrastructure investment bill, they passed the inflation reduction act, of course. Covid relief aid for Ukraine. These were all what democrats considered accomplish. Whether they're going to be able to tackle those types of items going forward remains uncertain. The Senate is also responsible for confirming joe biden's nominees. And so that's something that senate democrats can pretty much do on their own regardless of republicans and regardless of the U. S. House president, biden has been working to nominate more and more judges of course, he nominated the first black woman to this U. S. Supreme Court Justice Katana Brown Jackson and joe biden is trying to nominate more judges, *** diverse group all across the U. S. Federal court system. That's something you can expect Democratic senators to focus on in the new years, making sure Biden gets his nominees on the bench and elsewhere in the federal government.

Democratic control of the U.S. Senate was settled Saturday when Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada won reelection, but the U.S. House majority is still in question. Let's see where things stand. Why hasn't the AP called control of the House yet?It's simple: Neither party has yet reached the 218 seats needed to control the House.The Associated Press has declared winners in most contests, but a handful are outstanding. Heading into Sunday, Republicans had 211 seats compared with 204 for the Democrats, leaving 20 undecided.The AP does not make projections and will only declare a winner when it's determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. In some contested races where a party or candidate has a history of consistent and convincing wins, The AP can use results from AP VoteCast — a survey of American voters aimed at determining why they voted how they did — to confirm a candidate's victory, even as soon as polls close. But some races, as it is again this year, can take days or even weeks to call. Which states are still counting votes?California, the country's most populous state, has more undetermined contests than any other. A dozen races remain to be called there, with millions of votes left to count.There are also close races in Colorado and Oregon, among others, including some tight enough that they could be headed to a recount.In Alaska, where incumbent Democrat Mary Peltola won a special election this summer to fill an open House seat held for decades by Republicans, a second round of vote tabulating could take place.That's because Alaska has ranked choice voting in which voters rank candidates. If no one gets more than half of the votes cast on or before Nov. 8, the person with the fewest votes gets eliminated and voters' choices count toward their second pick. The rounds continue until two candidates are left and the one with the most votes wins.Peltola was leading Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich in a race too early to call. What other challenges are there?In 2020, former President Donald Trump challenged outcomes of the vote for president in states across the country. Those challenges failed in courts, though Trump continued to insist falsely that the race was stolen.So far, nothing like those kinds of objections has materialized.

Democratic control of the U.S. Senate was settled Saturday when Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada won reelection, but the U.S. House majority is still in question. Let's see where things stand.

Why hasn't the AP called control of the House yet?

It's simple: Neither party has yet reached the 218 seats needed to control the House.

The Associated Press has declared winners in most contests, but a handful are outstanding. Heading into Sunday, Republicans had 211 seats compared with 204 for the Democrats, leaving 20 undecided.

The AP does not make projections and will only declare a winner when it's determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. In some contested races where a party or candidate has a history of consistent and convincing wins, The AP can use results from AP VoteCast — a survey of American voters aimed at determining why they voted how they did — to confirm a candidate's victory, even as soon as polls close. But some races, as it is again this year, can take days or even weeks to call.

Which states are still counting votes?

California, the country's most populous state, has more undetermined contests than any other. A dozen races remain to be called there, with millions of votes left to count.

There are also close races in Colorado and Oregon, among others, including some tight enough that they could be headed to a recount.

In Alaska, where incumbent Democrat Mary Peltola won a special election this summer to fill an open House seat held for decades by Republicans, a second round of vote tabulating could take place.

That's because Alaska has ranked choice voting in which voters rank candidates. If no one gets more than half of the votes cast on or before Nov. 8, the person with the fewest votes gets eliminated and voters' choices count toward their second pick. The rounds continue until two candidates are left and the one with the most votes wins.

Peltola was leading Republicans Sarah Palin and Nick Begich in a race too early to call.

What other challenges are there?

In 2020, former President Donald Trump challenged outcomes of the vote for president in states across the country. Those challenges failed in courts, though Trump continued to insist falsely that the race was stolen.

So far, nothing like those kinds of objections has materialized.

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