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Today's trust tip: Explain how you call who won an election

Hi there. Lynn here.

By now, we all know the 2020 election isn't going to look like previous elections.

We know more people will be voting early or via mail or absentee ballot. We know those changes will affect how quickly final tallies come in. We also know the security of our voting system is being questioned by people in the highest positions of power.

These are just some of the reasons why we need to take time to explain to our users how we will be determining who wins races.

Our partners at The American Press Institute hosted a conversation with journalists from the Associated Press to address this very issue. The journalists offered tips on things you can be doing — prior to the election, throughout Election Day and in the days after. Some of their tips focused on explaining how counting votes will work, why focusing on precincts probably doesn't make sense this year, and why it is not a new phenomenon for results to not be available on the night of the election.

Andrew Rockway highlighted the following when summarizing the call for API:

Emphasize explanatory reporting now until Election Day. Explain what's changed and what's the same about voting this year.
The differences in voting methods at the state level will affect when and how states report results, which will determine when races can be called. Explain this to your users.
There is a difference between contests that are too close to call and just too early to call based on available data. Differentiate between the two when discussing results.

You can watch the full conversation with the AP journalists here. The news organization also has public-facing pages that explain how they count the vote, how they call races and how their survey, VoteCast, works.

TRY THIS: Having led election coverage for a newsroom myself, I know how stressful it can be, especially when it comes to making sure the most accurate vote counts are reflected on your website. So, try writing about how you do it. Talk about where you are pulling information in from (probably your county election office and maybe the AP). Explain why you rely on those sources and how the information gets to you. Then talk about when your news organization will be calling races. Will you be deferring to the AP? Maybe you will be relying on national coverage from your affiliate or ownership. Tell your audience that and then ask them what questions they have.

— Lynn Walsh, Trusting News assistant director

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Trusting News aims to demystify trust in news and empower journalists to take responsibility for actively demonstrating credibility and earning trust. It is a project of the Reynolds Journalism Institute and the American Press Institute.