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Why do they count a state as having been won by a candidate after only 5%, 10%, or even 25% of the total precincts are reported? That cannot possibly have given a candidate the 51% they need to carry the state.

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There are only 9 states that are actually in question (the battleground states). All the others are known well in advance.

They pretend they don't know till the polls close, but it's just to avoid discouraging voters.

Load this: http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/results/president/scenario... and mark the 9 states as they call them, and you'll know who won.

Annoyingly, that site now redirects to results reporting.

Or only on mobile?

Only on mobile. On the desktop it includes the current results but is still basically the decision tree. However, it doesn't let you choose the states that are already decided. (New Hampshire at the moment).

Because history and polls essentially show that the other candidate winning that state is impossible. They wait until voting closes in that state before calling it as a courtesy. The majority of states could have been called weeks in advance.

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