The Associated Press will bring together thousands of people next week to count votes and declare winners and losers in U.S. elections, continuing a tradition that began in 1848.

There is an even greater priority this year on explaining this process to foreigners.

The AP has already published a series of articles describing how everything works and has a team of reporters who will be assigned on election night to write in plain language why it is “calling” key states for presidential candidates. presidential. Kamala Harris Or Donald Trump.

Similar projects are underway at other news agencies. At the AP, editors are aware of political misinformation and opinion polls that reveal growing distrust of the media, said Julie Pacesenior vice president and editor-in-chief.

“I can’t get people to trust us,” Pace said. “But we spent an incredible amount of time, effort and resources to make this happen. We take this very seriously.

Several news agencies are trying to explain things

NBC News has published explanatory articles on its website. One, for example, tells readers how exit polls work and how the network will use them. The New York Times promised more information would accompany one of its most popular election night online stories, the needlewhich fluctuates by measuring the probability of victory of the presidential candidate.

On air, ABC News broadcast a “Protect your vote» The series, which profiled election workers, explained why there will be fewer polling places and featured people who have been involved in election lawsuits.

CNN is also publishing a series of articles explaining the projection process and exit polls, and giving advice on how people should follow election night media coverage. It is also make a version of its “Magic Wall” available online, so that viewers can have the same access to statistics and historical comparisons as those corresponding John King has on air.

The role of the AP during election night count the vote is unique, based on the principle that even if individual jurisdictions’ reports agree, there is no federal authority to bring it all together.

The process involves almost 5,000 people and the data is widely used in the information industry. Stringers collect results directly from local officials nationwide and transmit them to a vote-entry center, where the numbers are compiled and compared to online sources. Furthermore, the press agency – like the largest television networks – calls individual races using actual results, exit polls and historical trends.

The rule for declaring a winner is simple: “We run the race when there is no way for the trailing candidate to catch up,” Pace said. In 2020, media reported Joe Biden winner over Trump on Saturday after Election Day.

The AP plans to make appeals this year in 6,832 individual elections, from the presidential election to local elections and ballot measures.

Why calls are made – and not made

A dozen journalists were tasked with writing articles and live blog entries explaining the specific factors that come into play in the calls in key swing states and other closely watched elections. It’s a test for writers: it requires both technical knowledge and an ability to convey that information clearly and quickly.

It’s also important to keep people informed when a race is too close or other factors are holding back a decision.

“It is absolutely important that an organization be as transparent as possible, particularly because efforts have been made to question the credibility of the calls,” said Marc Lukasiewiczdean of Hofstra University’s School of Communication and longtime NBC News producer. At the same time, it’s difficult to do this in a way that makes sense to people who aren’t statisticians or experts in how systems work, he said.

The AP was correct in every one of its calls to the president, Congress and governors for the 2020 race, with an overall accuracy rate of 99.9%.

Yet President Trump and his supporters were furious when Fox News Channel and the AP announced that Biden was the winner in the key swing state of Arizona, well ahead of other news outlets. The call turned out to be accurate, but it fueled suspicion about the voting process. Fox, in particular, has faced a huge backfire of its viewers.

There is a direct connection between this episode and AP’s efforts to be more systematic and thorough in its explanatory efforts this year, Pace said.

“We need to explain better and faster what’s happening in those moments, instead of effectively saying, ‘We’re the AP, we have a 99 percent accuracy rate, of course we’re right.’ , she said.

Only about a quarter of Republicans say they have “a lot” or “somewhat” confidence that the vote will be counted accurately nationally, according to a poll published Friday by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About three-quarters of Democrats reported the same level of confidence.

Don’t neglect routine things that can become stories

“I don’t delve into conspiracy theories.

Ultimately, the U.S. election was incredibly well-run, Pace said.

“I hope that if people don’t know what’s going to happen here, what’s going on behind the scenes, we’ve been very transparent,” she said. “It’s all there. Everything is available for people.

“I’m not naive enough to think that its release quells all the skepticism around the election or mitigates all the misinformation, but it is an incredibly robust effort to ensure that factual explanatory information about the election is available. »

The AP experimented more with this type of material early in the election season and proved popular with readers. “It reinforced to us that this is something we should be doing,” she said.

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Republished with permission from The Associated Press.

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