How The Associated Press covers elections in an unprecedented political climate

WASHINGTON — While the 2024 election cycle has appeared different to most, The Associated Press’ mission around elections has remained consistent.

Anna Johnson and Steven Sloan lead the AP’s elections coverage and are featured in this episode of The Story Behind the AP Story, a recurring audio production that features extended interviews with AP journalists discussing their stories and processes.

This episode explains how AP covers elections, and what we’re doing the same and different ahead of the November 2024 election.

HAYA PANJWANI, HOST: The 2024 election cycle has been no short of surprises. A candidate dropped out while the first candidate of Black and South Asian descent entered the race, and there have been now multiple attempted assassinations of a former president. All journalists are compelled to tell those stories and other stories around the election as clearly and fairly as possible. I’m Haya Panjwani. On this episode of the story behind the AP story, we’ll be hearing from two people who lead AP journalism around elections. Washington bureau chief, Anna Johnson.

ANNA JOHNSON, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: That attempted assassination of Trump was just such a pivotal moment, something that you cannot believe happened and how it happened.

PANJWANI: And Deputy Washington bureau chief Steven Sloan.

STEVEN SLOAN, DEPUTY WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: We are a divided country. That was true in 2020. It’s just as true now, if not more so.

JOHNSON: In the past two-and-a-half years since I’ve been bureau chief, I’d say I haven’t seen a dramatic difference in the political climate in the United States. But certainly over the last 10 years or so, you know, you’ve seen a country that’s become more and more divided where people feel really entrenched into the beliefs that they believe in. Fewer and fewer people are undecided about who they like and who they don’t like, who they want to vote for, what party they believe and what party they definitely don’t believe in. There’s a lot of fewer people in the middle. And as a result, the elections themselves, especially for the president, have really come down to a small number of states, an even smaller number of people in those states, to ultimately decide who is going to win the presidency or not win the presidency, particularly from the Electoral College, the road to 270. You really see people increasingly — while they’re engaged, they want to turn away from it, too, because there’s some things they don’t feel like a lot of the politicians, and really the tenor of politics, really speak to them and addresses their real concerns that they have in their everyday lives.

PANJWANI: Voters can care about a variety of issues, but what’s important this year?

JOHNSON: Abortion, reproductive rights is a critical issue for a lot of people. We see that obviously playing out in the presidential race. We’ll see that, though, in the Senate races, in the House races and the governor’s races, in a lot of these ballot measures in key states and where this is going to be something that the voters will be directly voting on. Also, immigration is a key issue that people are talking about. That’s a concern that they want to see whatever various things that they would like the government to do or not do in regard.

SLOAN: I think voters are divided. Our polling is showing it’s a variety of issues, anything from the economy, inflation and prices overall to democracy and whether the democratic principles that the country has abided by for so long will continue to be respected.

PANJWANI: Misinformation has grown in the past few years. An AP-NORC poll in December 2023 found a majority of Republicans believe Democrat Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president.

SLOAN: Misinformation continues to play just a massive role in American politics. One of the most important things that we are doing at the AP around elections is explanatory work to really loud and clear, approachable verbiage, what you can trust and what’s not accurate out there.

JOHNSON: One thing that is really challenging is obviously we believe in facts and our journalism is completely based on the facts of what has happened, what is happening. And it is really hard sometimes to sort of figure out the best way to counter that misinformation, provide the facts, hopefully get it in front of people so that they can hopefully read it, watch it, see it and absorb that information and be able to use it as they make decisions about their everyday lives.

PANJWANI: Ahead of an election, The Associated Press worked through all kinds of hurdles to make sure it’s as prepared as it can be.

SLOAN: A lot of preparation goes into election night. I have a lot of news every day. The final weeks of an election tend to be when candidates are in multiple states and you’re out on the road quite a bit. Those of us who are kind of back here at the Washington bureau will be focused on preparing all of the coverage — whether that’s text, video, images — and just making sure we’re in position for not only what happens on election night, but however long it takes to call the presidency and to make sure that we’re on top of any legal battles that come up afterward. Any questions over certification that might arise? This is not a story that ends on election night for us.

JOHNSON: In advance of November 5, we're trying to explain a lot about how the voting process works, why it’s so complicated, why it’s different in every state. How you vote can matter and when your ballot might be counted, depending on where you live, how different places count, different types of ballots. Just that entire thing is really complicated and varies so much. And we’re trying to explain that a lot in advance — and then to continue to explain that through the election process on November 5 and as the votes are coming in and as the votes are being counted, because that will potentially likely play out where people are watching a handful of states and wondering why it’s taking so long for the votes to come in, why someone might be up by a certain number one day and then not up the next day and why that may be. To explain how that can happen.

SLOAN: We’re all prepared for a close election. All signs are that this is a tight race. And so I think that we are prepared for whatever happens.

JOHNSON: We are preparing for possible scenarios that, you know, the vote count could go on for some time. Because, again, if it is really close for the presidential race, if it’s really close, because of the way voting works, because the way different states count the vote, it could take a longer time to actually get to that result, to have one of the candidates reach 270.

PANJWANI: This election season has not been like most other elections.

SLOAN: There has not been an instance in modern times of an incumbent president running for reelection and then deciding not to do that so close to the election. And of course, you know, you had an attempted assassination, a security breach, the likes of which we have not experienced since 1980. July of 2024 will go down as one of the most kind of turbulent moments in American politics. And we’ve had a lot of turbulence.

JOHNSON: There could be surprises left. We don’t know. That is sort of the news business. You never know what’s going to happen. But I do think we’re in a really strong position to be ready to cover whatever comes our way.

JAIME HOLGUIN, PRODUCER: This has been the story behind the AP story. For more on AP’s election coverage, visit APNews.com.