Making the Call: How the AP Calls Election Results
Online Event
Virtual Event
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT
With less than two weeks to November 5 and voters heading to the ballot box early, this webinar will dig into questions about how the Associated Press conducts their election counting, how the count and certification process works, and how reporters should use and convey that information to the public. Attendees will gain a clear understanding of the elections process, helping to build trust amid widespread election misinformation.
This event is hosted by the Shorenstein Center and co-sponsored by the Journalist’s Resource and the Nieman Foundation.
Speakers include:
- Sally Buzbee (Moderator), former Executive Editor of The Washington Post
- Katie Bernard, Washington correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- David Scott, Vice President and Head of News Strategy and Operations at the Associated Press
- Robert Yoon, Reporter at the Associated Press
About the Speakers
Sally Buzbee served most recently as Executive Editor of The Washington Post, the newspaper’s first woman top editor. During her tenure, the Post won numerous Pulitzer Prizes including a public service award for its in-depth examination of the Jan. 6, 2021, post-election insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. She expanded climate and wellness coverage, deepened the Post’s international investigative work and oversaw the creation of new election-night and pre-election analytical tools.
Before joining the Post in 2021, Buzbee was Executive Editor of The Associated Press, guiding the news cooperative’s election coverage, war and conflict coverage and investigative work. As bureau chief for The AP in Washington before that, she helped create the AP’s VoteCast, an alternative to traditional exit polls, and expanded the bureau’s investigative work. She oversaw coverage of two presidential elections including Donald Trump’s 2016 election.
Katie Bernard is a reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer, covering election administration in Pennsylvania and the politics and government of Philadelphia’s suburbs.
Tia Mitchell is the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Washington correspondent. In this role, she writes about Georgia’s congressional delegation, campaigns, elections and the impact that decisions made in D.C. have on residents of the Peach State.
David Scott is vice president and head of news strategy and operations at The Associated Press. He is responsible for the setting the strategic direction of AP’s news report and driving the implementation of overall priorities and new initiatives in News and across the enterprise. Put most simply, it’s Scott’s job to help AP and its journalists figure out how best to meet our goal to be first with the story for audiences everywhere – and ensure we’re doing it every day. 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. A graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, he lives in Portland, Maine.
Robert Yoon is a reporter at The Associated Press, with a focus on analyzing elections and explaining the intricacies of the electoral process. He is now covering his seventh presidential campaign cycle. As Director of Political Research at CNN, he received two Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award for his contributions to the network’s election coverage. He recently served as a visiting professor of journalism and public policy at the University of Michigan and has a Master’s Degree from the Harvard Kennedy School.
