Those following election night coverage on the Internet this primary season may have noticed that a newcomer — the Ace of Spades Headquarters Decision Desk (that’s @AOSHQDD on Twitter) — often tallied the votes faster and called the results sooner than the Associated Press.

The Decision Desk, run by blogger Brandon Finnigan as an extension of the conservative Ace of Spades blog, began as an idea a decade ago. In 2004, Finnigan was attending college and watching the election night results between President George W. Bush and then-Sen. John Kerry.

“I was watching the returns come in and I had noticed that there were a few counties at the time … that actually did post the results online. … And the AP [returns] and the numbers that the media market had weren’t up — they weren’t included in the totals.”