Why and how AP counts votes in thousands of US elections

WASHINGTON (AP) — There is no easier way to count votes than by counting votes.

The Associated Press has been tallying national, state and local election results since 1848. In broad strokes, the process is the same today as it was then: Vote-counting reporters collect local election results as soon as polls close, then send those results for the AP to collate, verify and report.

This year, AP will count votes in approximately 5,000 competitive races across the United States, from the presidency and Congress to state legislatures and ballot measures.

In the United States, there is no national body that collects and publishes election results. Elections are conducted at the local level by thousands of chapters according to standards set by states. In many cases, states themselves do not even offer updated information on election results.

AP plays a role in collecting and standardizing results.

AP’s vote count fills a gap by bringing together information that might otherwise not be available online for days or weeks after an election or scattered across hundreds of local websites. Without national standards and uniform expectations across states, it also ensures that data is presented in a standard format, uses standard terms, and undergoes strict quality control.

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Data collection begins when Americans begin voting, which in almost every race means well before Nov. 5 this year.

The AP is seeking information from state and local election administrators on the number of absentee ballots requested and the number of early votes cast immediately after voting begins. (You can track these numbers Here.) These numbers do not contain results, which are released only after the polls close, but they can provide valuable information about the people who voted by Election Day.

The big effort begins after the polls close, when about 4,000 AP vote-counting reporters fan out to polling stations and county election offices. AP’s vote count reporter will be stationed in nearly every county election office on Election Day, as well as in key cities and towns, collecting data straight from the source.

Many vote count reporters have significant experience collecting accurate vote count information for the AP. At the last general election, about half of them had worked in AP for at least 10 years. Hundreds more have experience collecting vote count data from primary and general elections.

They work with local election officials to collect results directly from the counties or polling places where they are first counted and collected, and submit them by telephone or electronically as soon as they become available. The results are transmitted to the AP vote center, where another 800 to 900 people work.

Because many states and counties display election results on websites, AP monitors those sites and enters the results into the same system. The Voting Center also accepts results directly from election officials where they are provided and uses automated tools to collect results from official government websites.

In many cases, counties are reporting higher vote counts as they count ballots overnight. The AP is continually updating its data as these results are published. In the general election, AP will publish up to 21,000 race updates per hour.

Errors can happen, such as testing data being accidentally published on a state website or a stringer accidentally transferring vote totals for two candidates. Having multiple sources helps AP figure out where these errors are happening and often prevents them from being published.

Sometimes counting errors need to be corrected, such as when a county makes corrections to its data or someone accidentally enters an extra zero. In some cases, this may result in a drop in the total number of votes counted once the problem is identified and corrected.

This is why it is useful to have multiple update sources.

On general election night, the AP can have up to five or six potential sources of election results in each district and choose between them based on which one is the most current and accurate. These multiple sources do not simply serve as backups to each other; they also provide verification that helps ensure that the reported vote totals are correct.

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