> The black box said that "the AP has called the election" -- the Associated Press is not responsible for determining who governs the US.

You don't seem to understand that this is how US elections are always called? The press calls the state when they estimate it's impossible for it to go any other way, and then the electors vote a while later.

It's the presentation of a single non-governmental, potentially biased organization, the AP, as the authoritative figure, to which I object. The black box message didn't mention electors or counts at all, only that "the AP has called" it.

Whether or not the election is called is the only thing that mattered the week of the election since there was/is no finalization until the electoral college votes. I don’t understand why there’s any handwaving about this part other than the sudden encouragement by certain political actors that never had a problem with it before.

Oh, that's fine, it's that a specific commercial organization was presented as the deciding authority that is the problem. That won't help convince anyone whose fundamental disagreement is a distrust in traditional media's authority figures. Google/YT could have put anything in that message, and they got the delivery all wrong.

If the problem is fundamental distrust then what difference does it make if it’s the AP? The message isn’t for the people who choose to be misinformed, it’s for those that could be unwittingly.