NEW YORK -- The Associated Press will use a wide array of digital tools and innovations to count the vote and cover the results on Tuesday, Nov. 6, when Americans elect a president, Congress and numerous state officials.

The AP, the most trusted source of information on U.S. election night with a history of accuracy dating to 1848, will offer that expertise to its member news organizations, other commercial customers and the public across all platforms.

Here are the highlights of AP’s coverage plans:

•    The AP will count the votes in nearly 7,000 races in more than 4,600 locations on election night, tallying and reporting the vote to elect the president, Congress and governors, plus state and some regional and local races. Its tabulation of results is used by almost every major news organization in the United States, plus numerous international clients. "AP has people gathering the vote in almost every county and parish across the United States," says AP Director of Election Services Brian Scanlon, making its tabulations highly prized for their accuracy and speed.

•    AP will call the winner in the presidential race state by state, plus 33 Senate, 11 gubernatorial and 435 congressional races, using state-of-the-art analytical tools and its premier vote count to help determine when a race is decided. State-based race callers also will designate winners in nearly 4,000 additional down-ticket races, from state constitutional officers to state legislatures to ballot initiatives.

•    AP’s popular news app, AP Mobile, downloaded by more than 11 million users across all mobile platforms, will provide timely updates on presidential and other key races, including maps showing the balance of power. Push alerts and breaking news banners will provide the latest news. You can download the app at www.getapmobile.com.
 
“As the media landscape has changed so rapidly over the years, we have innovated to ensure our bedrock vote count and race-calling operations -- so vital to Americans on election night -- are available everywhere customers and consumers want them, from mobile phones to online, on air, in newspapers and across the social space,” said AP Washington Bureau Chief Sally Buzbee, who’s in charge of campaign coverage.

“Our journalism will help Americans and the world stay on top of the vote results as they come in, and understand what those results mean for the country,” she added.

Among other highlights:

•    AP video will provide live video coverage on APTN Direct throughout the day and into the evening until after the presidential race is called and through the victory and concession speeches. AP will also be providing continuous live coverage of polling locations across all time zones leading into the evening speeches. AP has made an investment of $30 million over the past three years to convert all of its video ingestion, production and playout to high definition.

•    AP’s Live Desk will offer a continuous flow of short-form color, updates and observations throughout Election Day and night as Americans vote and results are announced. These brief reports will work in tandem with AP stories, allowing customers who check in regularly — especially on mobile devices — to see what’s happening at a glance. "Election Watch" will be distributed on all major AP services.

•    HTML interactives – seamlessly viewable across platforms, from desktops to phones to tablets – will be provided by AP for the first time in an election, with a heavy emphasis on the balance of power and maps. An "On the Trail" interactive will showcase AP photojournalists in a dynamic grid design, capturing candid moments on election night using Instagram, the popular photo-sharing mobile app.

•    AP’s Big Story microsite will gather all of AP's extensive election coverage in one place. The page (http://bigstory.ap.org/topic/election-2012) will be updated throughout the day and night with the latest news and analyses, video and photos on all the big races. It will also highlight the Election Watch feature, a frequently updated text feed of interesting, short-form material from AP journalists across the country. (http://bigstory.ap.org/election-watch)

Additional AP coverage plans:

•    A new daily text feature, “What to Watch,” will run starting Monday, Oct. 29, underscoring the top things expected each day. It will move on AP’s wires and mobile platform each morning, Eastern time in the United States. It will build on the AP’s “10 Things to Know,” a twice-daily rundown of the top items of the day, which has become one of the more popular features among customers and readers – particularly on mobile devices.   

•    AP will be mining social networks for newsworthy tips, trends and user-generated content related to the election and putting them through our extensive verification process.

•    Early on Election Day, AP will move a selection on images of citizens casting their ballots from polling places nationwide. In addition, photographers traveling with the presidential candidates are using Instagram to document the quirky behind-the-scene moments on the campaign. Their work can be seen by searching #aponthetrail.

•    AP Radio will broadcast live special reports at :20 and :40 minutes past the hour on the AP-1 special events channel until after the race is called and through the victory and concession speeches. Titled “Campaign 2012,” the reports will be anchored by Ed Donahue. Election news will top the hourly AP-1 newscasts, :55 updates and :31 headlines, barring breaking news. AP Radio will also offer both anchored (AP-2) and unanchored (AP-3) coverage of the victory and concession speeches. Reporters will be with both candidates’ campaigns and cover key congressional races from Capitol Hill.

For further information on AP’s election night efforts, visit our website at http://bit.ly/RCpUna.

About  AP
The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is the most trusted source of independent news and information. On any given day, more than half the world's population sees news from AP. On the Web: www.ap.org.

Contact
Paul Colford
Director of AP Media Relations


Erin Madigan White
Manager of AP Media Relations

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Nov. 14, 2012
In this memo to AP staff, Managing Editor for State News, Financial News and Global Training Kristin Gazlay singles out the veteran Washington staffer who crunches the numbers and deciphers the data to help lead AP on election night in accurately calling the presidential race and thousands of others:

AP has a well-earned reputation of being the gold standard for election calls, and that held true again this time around – an extremely close year with numerous tight races across the board, including high-profile Senate contests and narrow margins in many battleground states in the fight for the presidency.

The result? AP director of race calls David Pace and his team of 37 callers and 11 election analysts called a total of 4,653 races on election night and the next day, with a remarkable accuracy rate of 99.9 percent.

Pace began pulling together his team more than a year ago, with training beginning in earnest before the primary races and escalating through the late summer and fall. This year held many extra challenges, including a large number of first-time callers and less-detailed exit polling information in some states. Race callers and analysts must do in-depth reporting and research, making sure they know their races, plus the state's voting history, laws and elections personnel. The job combines exhaustive research with the need to be able to analyze numbers on deadline and to be decisive. And nobody does it better than the AP.

No wonder major customers such as the Wall Street Journal and New York Times explicitly chose to go with our calls. AP calls were credited on many newspaper websites and on TV, and the Journal sent a memo to staff ahead of time saying it would depend on AP’s expertise.

AP race calls form the basis of all of our journalism on election night, from TV to text to photos to interactives. One example: An interactive election night map created by Michelle Minkoff, Nathan Griffiths, Seth Rasmussen and Troy Thibodeaux flawlessly reported results throughout the night for the presidential, Senate, House and gubernatorial contests, as well as key ballot initiatives. The product, a separate service for premium clients, logged more than 14 million visitors: http://apne.ws/THsJoF

"Calling races, from the presidential level to state legislatures, is a vital function the AP provides to members and customers on election night,” says Washington Chief of Bureau Sally Buzbee. “Being able to accurately and quickly call those statewide and state-level races is critical to our members and customers' ability to provide strong election night coverage."

For underscoring the AP’s essential nature by leading an operation that accurately called scores of races in all 50 states, David Pace wins this week’s $300 Best of the States prize.

About AP
The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is the most trusted source of independent news and information. On any given day, more than half the world's population sees news from AP. On the Web: www.ap.org.

Contact
Paul Colford
Director of AP Media Relations


Erin Madigan White
AP Media Relations Manager

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AP
Don Rehill is Director of Election Tabulation and Research for The Associated Press.  He oversees all of AP's election tabulation procedures, from creating specifications for vote entry screens and programs that check incoming vote reports for accuracy, to helping configure AP call centers, prioritizing election night sources, establishing best practices for election night field stringers, and training teams of quality control analysts.

Rehill is also responsible for the many election research reports that AP distributes to its bureaus, members and customers before and after elections.  These reports involve national, state, party, county and/or precinct level election data, featuring subjects such as election laws and procedures, voter registration, official votes, delegate allocation, candidate and incumbent filing and tracking, ballot measure research, absentee/early and provisional voting, reapportionment and redistricting, and voting equipment usage.  Associate Press relies heavily on an election research database which Don designed.  This database serves as an archive for official votes (back to 1964) and enables his team to generate the AP election research reports.

Don coordinates election night operations with other AP departments, including News and Technology, and he is the primary AP liaison with national "top of the ticket" customers.  He and his group of professional researchers, election coordinators and stringer coordinators work with election officials at the state, county, and often at the town/city level, as well as with political party representatives.

Rehill joined AP in 2003 as manager of election research and quality control.  He has been involved in election research and tabulations for the media since 1983, when he joined News Election Service as a researcher.

He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Lafayette College, and a master's degree in government and law from the University of Delaware.