You will think as a reporter it feels dumb to keep saying this because it’s so obvious. However, we are going to need to keep saying that the ballots are always counted for days after Election Day and the election is not decided until the ballots are counted.

Sometimes a winner can be forecast on election night. Sometimes not. This year, likely a “not.” But ballots still being counted past Tuesday is totally normal.

That is how it is. That is how it always has been. The people saying otherwise know that they’re lying. Call them on it. In real time. On TV. In headlines. In the adjacent sentence of stories. Or better yet, just don’t air or publish the lie. Stick with the truth.

We’re not obligated as journalists to air and publish things we know are false in order to be “fair.” In fact, what’s fair to the viewer or reader is to make it as clear as possible the truth about what is happening. Airing or publishing people’s lies is unfair - to the audience.