Why the Associated Press called the race for Hillary Clinton when nobody was looking
"Most observers expected that Hillary Clinton would be crowned the victor in the Democratic presidential primary process at some point after New Jersey voted on Tuesday. Supporters of Bernie Sanders hoped to convince the media to hold off on such an announcement until the convention or, at the very least, until after polls closed in California later Tuesday night. But everyone knew some sort of declaration was coming; Clinton was within a few dozen delegates of winning — including both winning through voting and superdelegates — and New Jersey would put her over the top.
But then on Monday evening, unexpectedly, the Associated Press sent out an announcement: Clinton was already there.
Over the weekend, Clinton won two more Democratic contests that drew her within shouting distance of clinching the nomination — the Virgin Islands and (more important) Puerto Rico. On Monday morning, she needed 23 more delegates to hit the 2,383-delegate mark that constitutes a majority for the convention. She had 1,812 pledged delegates and commitments from more than 500 superdelegates, but she was a bit short of the threshold.
What happened on Monday was that the Associated Press received commitments from enough superdelegates — just enough superdelegates, in fact — to put Clinton over the top. With 23 more superdelegates in hand, Clinton reached the 2,383 mark, and the AP made the call.
Understandably, that out-of-the-blue determination prompted even more frustration and confusion than was already expected. How was the AP sure that those superdelegates wouldn't change their minds? Why release new totals the day before the critical primaries in California? Who were the superdelegates that made the difference?
We did our best to answer those questions"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/07/why-the-associated-press-called-the-race-for-hillary-clinton-when-nobody-was-looking/
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