the painstaking work of the Associated Press to crown the winner

« Joe Biden wins Pennsylvania. » These four words, sent by the Associated Press (AP) at 11:25 a.m. (5:25 p.m. Paris time) on November 7, 2020, crossed oceans and language barriers in a few short seconds. At 5:33 p.m., The World writes in turn: “The Democrat wins in Pennsylvania and obtains 20 additional electors, thus securing the majority of the 270 votes in the electoral college. » Like many media outlets, the newspaper cites AP. Millions of phones vibrate almost simultaneously, part of America shouts its euphoria in the streets, another its despondency, diplomatic reactions rain down.

In the United States, the electoral results announced by the press are authentic. No national electoral commission announces the name of the winner at 8 p.m. To follow the vote count, sometimes for days, Americans rely on the media, led by the Associated Press agency, the undisputed authority on the subject since the 1848 election.

Its responsibility has not changed: to monitor and centralize local vote counts, and only declare a winner when it is mathematically established. Even if it means not announcing anything if the margin is too tight in a state, as was the case during the extraordinary post-election duel of 2000 between George W. Bush and Al Gore, which AP refused to decide before a decision of the Supreme Court. The method is far from that of 1860, when postal riders of the Pony Express collected figures from California to transmit them by telegraph.

No room for speculation

Behind the brief alerts that AP gives throughout theElection Dayand often beyond, today there is a rush of all the agency's specialist journalists, statisticians, race callersthese experts responsible for declaring the winner in each state, experienced pollsters and editors. All form the decision team (“decision team”). For them, “elections are not an event that happens every four years in November, but a full-time job”underlines David Scott, one of the AP editors in chief responsible for the cell responsible for validating the results.

Tirelessly, they track the state of the polls, the voting history in each state, their changing electoral rules, the ballots sent by mail. HAS a few weeks before the election, it's time for general rehearsals. Wide lead or close neck and neck, the AP teams prepare all scenarios. Fake voting data is generated to simulate D-Day conditions – with “TEST” prominently displayed. They record the slowness, the problems encountered, and improve what can be improved. The machine must be perfectly oiled, summarizes David Scott, “like a sports team preparing for a big match”.

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