AP to Cover Election Night Results Online With Continuous Live Video Stream

By: E&P Staff The Associated Press will cover election night 2008 results with its first continuous online live video stream. "Big Issue: Election Results" will stream on the news agency's Online Video Network starting at 7 p.m. ET.

The webcast will originate from AP?s Washington bureau and will be co-hosted by Jessica Weinstein and the AP?s Sagar Meghani. Coverage will include AP Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier, AP political reporters, and AP editors discussing the returns, along with updates on congressional races and live reports from the campaign headquarters of Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain.

The program will also feature 10 now-undecided voters from around the country who will explain which presidential candidate they chose and why. Those voters have been part of the AP-Yahoo! News poll, which has tracked the attitudes and opinions of a group of more than 2,000 Americans to determine how their political views evolve over the course of the presidential campaign this past year.

The more than 500 AP reporters, editors, videographers, technical support personnel and other staffers covering the presidential, congressional, and state elections will be joined on Nov. 4 by 4,600 local reporters. These ?stringers? will fan out across the country to collect vote results from county clerks and then phone them into four election tabulation centers -- two in Spokane, Wash., a third at AP headquarters in Manhattan and a fourth in Brooklyn. Other election results will come to the AP directly from secretaries of state via electronic feeds.

At the four vote-entry centers, all numbers will be filtered through the AP?s verification systems before they are entered into AP?s computer election system. From there, they will be distributed by satellite or the Internet to AP member newspapers, TV networks, Web sites and other media. The count will continue into the next day, and in some cases later in the week.

"The AP and its partners have prepared as much as humanly possible for the many potential twists and outcomes. Our election night team, headed by David Pace, Washington News Editor for Technology and Special Projects, has been expanded to ensure the decision made by AP vote analysts and State Bureau Chiefs are checked and double-checked," said Michael Oreskes, AP's Managing Editor for U.S. News.

The Associated Press has counted votes and declared winners every four years since 1848. The AP became the sole source of returns for all media starting with the 2004 General Election.