With a history of accuracy dating to our first vote count in 1848, AP remains the go-to source for trustworthy and reliable information every election night.
Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Julie Pace explains why AP calls U.S. elections and the preparations underway as Election Day approaches:
Why does AP call U.S. elections in the first place?
Elections in the United States are administered at the state and local level. That means there is no federal body that counts the vote or shares results. The AP stepped in to help fill that void more than 170 years ago, shortly after our founding. The goal was to ensure the public had an independent, non-partisan source of information on elections – and that’s the role AP continues to play, nearly two centuries later.
What is AP doing to prepare for the 2024 elections? How is the process similar – or different – compared to 2020?
The fundamentals of our approach to the 2024 election are unchanged. Our priority is ensuring we’re well-positioned to declare winners in races up and down the ballot with speed, and of course, accuracy. Our decision team has had plenty of practice this year during the busy primary season, which has helped them fine tune their workflows, communication and modeling. As Election Day nears, they’re paying particular attention to the battleground states in the presidential race and competitive House and Senate contests, ensuring we’re up to speed on any changes in voting rules and procedures in those locations.
(MORE: How does AP call races?)
We’re also placing a particular emphasis in 2024 on our explanatory journalism around our race calls and vote count. We plan to be more transparent than ever about how we’ve called key races, which is part of our effort to help build public confidence in election results. We know that the process can be confusing, so we think it’s important to show people what went into our decisions. We’ve also significantly expanded our data visualization around elections, which will provide audiences with an immersive digital experience on Election Day and beyond.
Why should people trust AP to get it right?
No news organization has been calling elections longer than the AP. That depth of experience, combined with our gold standard record of accuracy and our non-partisan approach to news coverage should give the public confidence in our race calls. Our motivations are simple: we want to get the calls right and we want to inform the public quickly. We have no political agenda or rooting interest in the outcome of the elections. We are focused on the facts and delivering the results accurately.
