Counting votes, declaring winners amid global pandemic
Every major election night at The Associated Press requires staff from across the news cooperative to come together to tell the story of who won, and why. Three U.S. states plan to move ahead today with presidential primary elections amid the COVID-19 outbreak, and that means there will be votes to count and races to call.
How AP calls a race at poll close
On Super Tuesday, AP declared Bernie Sanders the winner in California as soon as polls closed at 8 p.m. PT— one of four such race calls made that night as polls closed in a state.
AP’s top editor: Facts ‘foundational’ in 2020 election
Speaking to media executives and journalists at the News Xchange conference in Paris on Wednesday, AP Executive Editor Sally Buzbee underscored the importance of factual reporting in covering the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Emily Swanson named AP director of public opinion research
Deputy Managing Editor for Operations David Scott announced on Monday that polling editor Emily Swanson will be AP’s new director of public opinion research. Here is his memo to staff:
Creating the new standard in election research
Election polling is unlike any other kind of public opinion research, because you can measure your work against a known result – the actual tally of ballots cast. It means that when The Associated Press debuted AP VoteCast in the 2018 midterm elections, we’d know by the end of Election Day if our replacement for the in-person exit poll was a success.