I don't usually do threads, but since we're talking about what Election Night will look like: We'll still have exit polls and AP Votecast, so news organizations will be able to project winners in uncompetitive states, even without actual votes tallied.

This could actually be an important bulwark against some of the misleading results about which I'm seeing some warnings here. Even with the huge partisan split between in-person E-Day votes and mail/early votes, the media will be putting the decisive states in the right columns.

Meaning: Is it theoretically possible that Trump could be leading a solid-blue state that doesn't count any mail ballots until after Election Day? Sure. But it will be called for Biden anyway, because we'll have that survey data.

So what could Election Night look like in terms of the Electoral College? Let's take the far-too-conservative RCP electoral map (14 toss-up states!). This is a decent proxy for states that can be called without counting votes. It shows Biden leading 212-115.

Is it going to be awkward if, say, Trump is leading a battleground state that has a lot of uncounted by mail ballots by 10 or 15 points, and the media won't call it the night of? Yes. But after months of warnings, people shouldn't be surprised.

But barring a huge shift in the race, it's more likely that Biden will be leading the Electoral College counts from the networks and AP on Election Night than Trump, even in a scenario in which Trump ends up winning. So I'm not sure the sirens are warranted here.

Yes, I do worry about bad-faith actors pointing to partial and misleading vote counts in some states that wait to tabulate mail ballots. That's why it's incumbent on some of us to report on and explain this responsibly now — and have a plan for Nov. 3 and the days to follow.

Anyway, this is something I've been thinking about a lot, both in terms of my Election Night responsibilities as an editor at @politico, and more broadly for the industry and the country. Have thoughts or questions? Let me know!