How we collect live results, how the momentum trends are worked out, and what the numbers on the dashboard mean.
Every tally is entered by our team from published count reports and official precinct tally sheets as they are released, or uploaded in batches from those reports. Each record keeps the figures exactly as reported — we do not estimate, project or fill gaps with guesses.
The page reloads its figures every 30 seconds, so you are always looking at the latest tally we have recorded. Separately, the tracker stores a permanent snapshot of the running totals every 30 minutes (Monrovia time), which is what makes the trend and momentum charts possible.
A count arrives precinct by precinct, and different outlets publish at different moments and include different numbers of precincts. Check the "precincts reporting" figure: it tells you what share of polling places is already counted, so two sets of numbers can both be right at different points in the count.
Each stored snapshot holds every candidate’s cumulative votes at that moment. A momentum line simply plots those running totals over time. Movement is the latest point minus the earliest point in the period shown. Vote share is a candidate’s votes divided by all votes recorded in that same race at the same snapshot. A lead margin is the leader’s votes minus the runner-up’s, and a lead change is the moment that margin crosses zero.
It is the share of polling places whose tallies have been entered for that race. 100% means every precinct in the race is accounted for; anything below that means the race is still filling in, and the standings can still move.
A verified tally has been checked a second time against the official precinct record — not just entered once. Verification is applied deliberately by an administrator to specific tallies, and the badge records who validated it and when. The dashboard shows how many of the tallies it holds are verified at any moment.
No. We report counts and the arithmetic that follows from them, and we mark a candidate as a winner only where the count itself has been finalised and validated. We never project, extrapolate or model a result that has not been counted.
They are the official published results for those election cycles, stored separately from the live tallies and used only as a baseline for comparison. Historical figures never mix into the live count — the two are always shown as distinct sets of numbers.
Yes. The Embed button on the dashboard copies a ready-made snippet for the live national vote share chart, which refreshes itself every 30 seconds. You are welcome to publish it; a credit back to the tracker is appreciated.
Tell us. Every figure can be traced back to the source it was recorded from, so we can re-check it quickly and correct it if we got it wrong. Corrections are made in place, and the same record keeps its place in the history.
Our full methodology is set out on the About the Data page. For anything else — a correction, a media request or a question we have not answered here — use the contact page and we will get back to you.