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Trusted Elections Network: Conversations with The Associated Press
Discuss key election topics - like calling races and covering misinformation - with The Associated Press.
When and where
Location
Online
About this event
In this weekly discussion series, journalists from The Associated Press will discuss how they're approaching key election issues in the lead-up to November and share insight for local news outlets. You can register for one or multiple events.
Sept. 23 - Decision Desk: Declaring Election Winners in a Global Pandemic
When will we know who won the presidential election? The winner hasn’t always been known on election night. Drawing on its over 170 years of election experience, The Associated Press will once again report the results of the U.S. presidential election in November, declaring winners in some 7,000 races and informing the world of who wins the White House, control of Congress and every state legislature.
In this discussion, AP Deputy Managing Editor for Operations David Scott and Election Decision Editor Stephen Ohlemacher will explain how AP calls races and how it plans to adjust its process for this moment. They will identify factors that may influence how long it will take to determine who wins the presidency, and offer guidance on what journalists can do to help set the public’s expectations for election night.
The conversation will start with a short presentation, with substantial time for Q&A and open discussion.
Learn more:
- How AP calls races: http://apne.ws/vzXdz8c
- How AP calls a race at poll close: http://apne.ws/LB6wAAK
- AP news story: Delayed election results? Maybe, but not because of fraud: http://apne.ws/t1TSYIY
- AP news story: Election results are delayed again. Get used to it.: http://apne.ws/zWe7Xuf
About the Speakers
David Scott is a deputy managing editor at The Associated Press, where he is responsible for the operations of the news agency’s global newsroom. Scott also oversees AP’s public opinion research team and election decision desk, and coordinates AP’s overall coverage of U.S. elections – from the vote count that tells the world who won to the AP VoteCast election survey that explains the reasons why. Scott is a native of Philadelphia who grew up in Milwaukee and is a graduate of the University of Missouri's School of Journalism. He lives in Portland, Maine.
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Stephen Ohlemacher is AP’s election decision editor, managing a team of 60 analysts that declares the winner in nearly every U.S. election. During presidential primaries he oversees the AP delegate count, the gold standard for tracking presidential nominating contests. The AP Delegate Count is used by nearly every major news organization in the U.S. and around the world. In 2008, Ohlemacher won the AP’s highest award for journalism, The Gramling Award, for his work covering the delegate race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Ohlemacher is a graduate of The Ohio State University and Columbia University, where he was a Knight-Bagehot fellow.
Sept. 30 - Counting the Vote: When to Expect Election Results
The Associated Press has a history of accuracy on election night dating to 1848. It includes experience tabulating elections that aren’t decided on election night. In fact, the first AP vote count took more than a few hours on Election Day, and many still do.
In this discussion, AP Deputy Managing Editor for Operations David Scott and reporter Christina Cassidy will explain how AP tabulates votes in all 50 states and delivers those results to thousands of customers. They will relay what reporters are seeing on the ground as states prepare for the election, update states’ readiness to tally absentee and mail-in ballots, and offer guidance on what journalists should watch for in their own communities.
The conversation will start with a short presentation, with substantial time for Q&A and open discussion.
Learn more:
- How AP counts the vote: http://apne.ws/ROgePX4
About the Speakers
David Scott is a deputy managing editor at The Associated Press, where he is responsible for the operations of the news agency’s global newsroom. Scott also oversees AP’s public opinion research team and election decision desk, and coordinates AP’s overall coverage of U.S. elections – from the vote count that tells the world who won to the AP VoteCast election survey that explains the reasons why. Scott is a native of Philadelphia who grew up in Milwaukee and is a graduate of the University of Missouri's School of Journalism. He lives in Portland, Maine.
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Christina A. Cassidy has covered voting and election administration as a member of AP’s state government team since 2016. Her primary focus has been reporting on state and local efforts to expand and restrict access to voting, to secure election systems following the 2016 election and more recently to deal with the unprecedented disruptions to voting caused by the pandemic. Cassidy is based in Atlanta, and is a graduate of the University of Southern California. She has been with the AP since 2001.
Oct. 7 - Polling Best Practices: Using Voter Surveys to Tell Good Stories
Accurate polling tells the story of who won on Election Day and why. The Associated Press developed AP VoteCast as an alternative to the traditional exit poll to match how voters increasingly vote today: early, absentee and by mail. In many ways, the voter survey uses the ideal methodology to conduct accurate research about the electorate during a pandemic.
In this discussion, AP Washington Bureau Chief Julie Pace and Director of Public Opinion Research Emily Swanson will break down what AP VoteCast is and how it works, how to best use pre-election polling, and best practices on using survey research to tell good stories before and after Election Day.
The conversation will start with a short presentation, with substantial time for Q&A and open discussion.
Learn more:
- About AP VoteCast: http://apne.ws/anTioDu
- Polling in a pandemic: the ideal methodology: http://apne.ws/AN34C2S
- Polling guidance: https://blog.ap.org/industry-insights/updating-our-polling-guidance
About the Speakers
Julie Pace is Washington Bureau Chief for The Associated Press, directing AP’s coverage of the presidency, politics and the U.S. government. Previously she was AP’s White House Correspondent, contributing aggressive news reporting and sharp analysis to the AP news report.
Pace won the White House Correspondents’ Association Merriman Smith award in 2013 for her work explaining the Obama campaign’s complex approach to voter turnout. She joined AP in 2007 as a multimedia reporter, developing and executing AP’s plans for live video coverage of 2008′s Election Day and the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
A native of Buffalo, New York, Pace began her career as a reporter in 2003 at South Africa’s only independent television network, before spending two years reporting on politics and elections at the Tampa Tribune and its partner television station WFLA. She is a graduate of Northwestern University.--
Emily Swanson is the director of public opinion research at The Associated Press. A member of AP’s polling unit in Washington since 2014, she oversees polls conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, including AP’s role in questionnaire design, data analysis and story development.
Swanson also played a key part in the development of AP VoteCast, AP’s pioneering election research survey. As part of her role guiding journalists in their use of survey data, she helped develop updated polling standards published in a new chapter of the AP Stylebook in 2018, bringing those standards up to date for modern polling methods. The new chapter included the guidance that “poll results that seek to preview the outcome of an election must never be the lead, headline or single subject of any story.” Swanson also serves on the organization’s election night decision desk, analyzing vote returns, historical data and the results of AP VoteCast to determine when AP officially calls the winner in elections all across the country.
Prior to joining the AP, she was polling director at The Huffington Post, where she ran the site’s first survey research partnership. Before that, she was associate editor of the poll aggregation website Pollster.com. Swanson is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she held her first job in the field of survey research as a telephone interviewer.
Oct. 14 - Combating Election Misinformation With the Facts
With misinformation swirling ahead of the presidential election, fact-based reporting may never have been so important.
AP Deputy Managing Editor Amanda Barrett and Fact Check Editor Karen Mahabir will detail The Associated Press’ strategy in countering misinformation and what journalists can do to avoid amplifying falsehoods. They will identify trends in misinformation, break down what they’ve encountered so far in the election cycle and explain how to best cover the electoral process with factual information.
The conversation will start with a short presentation, with substantial time for Q&A and open discussion.
Learn more:
- Fact-checking work: https://apnews.com/Fact-checking
- AP Fact Checks: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck
About the Speakers
Amanda Barrett is deputy managing editor for administration at The Associated Press, leading the Nerve Center, AP’s hub for global news coordination, research, customer communication and audience engagement. Barrett also oversees newsroom talent development at AP, works with news leaders around the globe to drive more inclusive storytelling in the cooperative’s news report, and serves as a leader of AP’s race and ethnicity beat team.
Barrett assumed leadership of the Nerve Center in 2017 and was the editorial lead on a team that developed AP Playbook, a multiformat planning tool that has revolutionized the way AP communicates with its customers. Barrett previously served as New York City news editor, where she directed AP’s award-winning coverage of Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath, and in 2009 became the founding regional deputy editor for AP’s East region in the U.S., where she helped lead coverage of 10 northeastern U.S. states and establish AP’s regional news desk in Philadelphia.
Barrett joined AP in 2007 from Newsday, where she led a team of interactive journalists and managed the websites of the Long Island, New York, newspaper. She has also served as a sports editor at the Orlando Sentinel and at the Roanoke Times in her hometown of Roanoke, Virginia.
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Karen Mahabir oversees fact-checking and misinformation coverage at The Associated Press. She has worked as a reporter, editor and producer for the AP in its Mexico City, Washington and New York offices. Mahabir also served as Managing Editor of News for The Huffington Post for two years and has spent many years working as a reporter and columnist at several newspapers in New York City and New Jersey. Karen holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature, with a concentration in African, Asian and Caribbean Studies, from the University of Sussex in England. She also has a master’s degree in International Journalism from City University of London.