NBC News has put a simple definition on a term that sits inside live election coverage: expected vote is the total number of votes expected in a given race once all votes are counted. The figure is an estimate, not a final count, and it can change as new information comes in.
That matters for readers following Chris Pappas and other races because expected vote helps frame how much of the electorate remains uncounted when projections are made. Vote data comes via the, while projections are made by the NBC News Decision Desk, which uses several factors to build the estimate.
Those factors include information on how many votes were cast early and information provided on Election Day by county election officials to vote reporters. In other words, the number is built from what election workers are seeing and reporting in real time, not from a fixed formula that stays the same throughout the night.
The limitation is built into the system. Expected vote is only an estimate, so it can move as NBC News gathers more information. That means a race can look one way early in the evening and then shift as more ballots are understood and added into the picture.
The broader context is straightforward: gray links mark elections that have not yet happened, and not every state will have a race for every office in the midterm elections. For readers scanning live results, the useful question is not whether the expected vote number is perfect. It is whether the figure reflects the latest information available at the moment it appears.
