Count every vote, call the winners and report fast, accurate election news: There’s an AP for that
By The Associated Press staff
Coverage of U.S. elections is one of the AP’s most crucial missions, carried out in a sprawling but hyper-meticulous operation that stretches company-wide and brings order and clarity to the nation’s patchwork voting system. It’s a public service that predates the Civil War,going back to the 1848 contest when the AP declared Zachary Taylor president. In 2020,in an election cycle upended by a steady stream of disinformation and a global pandemic, the AP built on 172 years of election experience and delivered stories,photos,videos and graphics in innovative ways that didn’t just tell the story of who won,but why as well.
The complexity of the vote,happening amid a pandemic and white-hot partisan feuding,was brought together by senior writers and editors in compelling main stories and deeply knowledgeable analyses.
Once vote counts started coming in, our customers quickly gravitated to a new feature called Explainer that offered contextual looks at the reasons behind race calls for each state. Amid unfounded allegations of fraud, these brought greater transparency to AP’s race-calling decisions and the electoral process when it has never mattered more.
Video customers quickly came to rely on AP’s stable of live video cameras positioned in key places around the country, resulting in a whopping six days of uninterrupted live footage.
Meanwhile,AP’s photojournalists did what they do best, rapidly delivering compelling images from voting centers,protests and the jubilant image of Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris that graced the cover of Time magazine.
AP News saw 12 million pageviews on Election Day,and well over 10 million on Saturday,the day AP called the election. (A typical day sees 2 million to 4 million.) Ten political stories topped 1 million pageviews each,led by the story announcing Biden’s victory, which had nearly 2.6 million.
These are just some of the highlights of AP’s election coverage. Success on a story this massive can happen only with months,even years,of diligent planning,strong execution on little-to-no sleep and the dedication of hundreds of AP journalists — too many to call out by name.
None of this would have been possible without countless colleagues outside the News department — conspicuously the Elections vote tabulation team,as well as staffers in technology,products and revenue to name just a few — who work year-round enabling AP to fulfill this essential role.
For coverage that distinguished the AP with its clarity,transparency,breadth and accuracy in a momentous election year, the collective work of AP’s staff earns this week’s Best of the Week honors.