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Bill Handel: News Outlets Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Make Election Calls on Landslide Races

"If there's going to be a landslide -- I mean a ridiculous landslide -- it can't be announced."

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Last night, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris won the state of California and its 54 electoral votes. Bill Handel believes it shouldn’t have been a surprise to news media outlets.

California has voted for the Democratic nominee every election since 1992, and virtually every person in the nation knew it would be counted into the votes for Harris.

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During the KFI-AM 640 morning show on Wednesday, co-host Neil Saavedra joked that he was watching online coverage from The Los Angeles Times that gave the state to Harris as soon as the polls closed.

“The second they closed, I saw in The LA Times ‘California Went Blue.’ There was no counting, nothing,” he said.

Bill Handel shared his belief that that is how it should be, adding that when everyone knows a landslide victory is about to take place, it shouldn’t be a requirement that the polls need to be closed to count those votes for a given candidate.

“The policy is media outlets are not allowed to declare a winner — or declare anything — until the polls actually close,” said Handel. “So if there’s going to be a landslide — I mean a ridiculous landslide — it can’t be announced.”

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