The Associated Press (AP) is teaming up with Kalshi to provide its official U.S. election results to the prediction market platform as the 2026 primary season approaches.
Under the agreement, AP will deliver its real-time vote totals and formal race calls from federal and major state contests. Those figures, widely regarded as the benchmark for election night accuracy, will be displayed directly on Kalshi’s site next to the platform’s market-based projections.
Kalshi saw explosive growth during the 2024 presidential race, bringing more than 500 million visits as users tracked moving odds and placed bets on political outcomes. People are able to trade on the likelihood of future events, including elections. By adding AP’s results into the mix, Kalshi plans to give users a side-by-side view of how the vote count is unfolding and how markets are reacting in real time.
“The Associated Press for nearly two centuries has played an essential role in the American democracy as the most authoritative source for accurate results on election night,” said David Scott, AP’s vice president for elections.
He said the collaboration will “expand the reach of AP’s trusted elections data, meeting audiences where they are with reliable information about who voters have chosen to lead their country and communities.”
Kalshi’s head of politics, Jaron Zhou, said the tie-up will help the company build what it calls the “premier destination to experience elections.” Zhou said combining AP’s official vote results with Kalshi’s transparent market forecasts will create a clearer picture of what’s happening at the polls.
Kalshi expands election data partnerships via AP
The AP has a long history in the vote-counting business, with its election operations harking back to the 1800s. The system gathers results from thousands of local jurisdictions and state offices. In 2024, the organization reported 99.9 percent accuracy after tabulating votes and calling winners in nearly 7,000 races.
It recently renewed and expanded arrangements to supply results to major television networks and digital outlets, including ABC News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News and FOX News Media.
At the same time, Kalshi has been forging high-profile media partnerships of its own. The company struck an exclusive agreement with CNBC to integrate its prediction market data into the network’s coverage, and it entered a separate partnership with CNN to bring its election markets to that outlet’s audience.
That CNN arrangement has drawn scrutiny on Capitol Hill. A U.S. congressman publicly questioned the relationship in a letter, raising concerns about how prediction market content is presented alongside traditional news coverage.
Prediction markets continue to attract attention as an alternative gauge of public expectations. As political scientist and former US diplomat Michael Montgomery previously told us: “What we may be seeing is prediction markets functioning in the manner of an informal ‘big data’ application that aggregates the predictions of tens of thousands of observers with different perspectives and methods and then spits out a single prediction.”
Featured image: Kalshi / AP via X
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