How The Associated Press calls elections

In the 2024 U.S. general election, The Associated Press will declare winners in thousands of national and local races up and down the ballot — from the presidency to state legislature seats, along with ballot measures on a wide variety of topics.

To build trust in the race-calling process amid widespread election misinformation, it’s important for journalists to understand and explain how the process works.

Here we present a recording of a recent webinar in which panelists discussed:

• How the AP determines and calls winners.
• How local journalists use the information in their reporting.
• Pitfalls to avoid when covering election results.

This free event was co-sponsored by The Journalist’s Resource, the Nieman Foundation, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, and the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.

The webinar was moderated by Sally Buzbee, who served most recently as executive editor of The Washington Post and is currently a visiting fellow at the Nieman Foundation.

Panelists included:

Katie Bernard, a politics reporter who covers election administration issues at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Tia Mitchell, Washington correspondent at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

David Scott, vice president and head of news strategy at The Associated Press.

Robert Yoon, an elections and democracy reporter at The Associated Press.