AP’s essential role in elections
AP is the authoritative source for information about elections in the United States.
With a history of accuracy dating to our first vote count in 1848, AP is the go-to source for trustworthy and reliable information every election night. AP has unmatched expertise in counting the vote and declaring winners, which drives the comprehensive coverage of election results we provide to news organizations, customers and digital news audiences around the world.
Counting votes
In the American system of government, elections are administered most directly by local officials. There is no single government agency or federal commission that tallies those results and says who has won the most votes. That’s a role AP has filled in the democracy since 1848, a mere two years after the founding of the cooperative.
Calling races
AP declares winners in thousands of races in an election year, starting with the White House and reaching down the ballot to call every seat in every state legislature. In 2024, AP’s declarations were correct in every race for president, governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House – and 99.9% accurate overall.
The Associated Press
How we count the vote
AP doesn’t rely on crowd sourcing or technology short cuts to count the vote. Instead, we employ a network of local reporters who have first-hand knowledge of their states and trusted relationships with county clerks and other local officials. These reporters collect vote results at the source: voting precincts and county election offices. We match those results to data posted on county and state websites and provided via electronic data feeds, conducting an intense series of checks and verifications to ensure the numbers we publish are unfailingly accurate.
How we call races
AP’s Decision Team starts with research – from voter demographics to details on early and advance ballots cast to a review of political issues and candidate backgrounds — that might affect the outcome of a races. That’s followed after polls close with in-depth analysis of AP’s vote count. Only when completely confident the leader cannot be overtaken by trailing candidates will AP declare a winner.
