Prepare for a New Kind of Election Night News Coverage
The studios may look the same as always, but election coverage itself will be much different this year than in the past. Source.
Every four years, millions of Americans flock to their televisions on Election Night to watch as the results come in. This time around, things won’t be so simple.
The pandemic has changed a lot about this year’s election — from how we vote to what we value — but perhaps the greatest change of all will come on Election Night. An influx of mail-in ballots means vote counting will be slower. The process could take days, maybe even weeks, and for the first time in a long time, November 3rd could come and go without an agreed upon winner.
This is not to say certain news organizations won’t still declare a winner, however. Today’s competitive news market has driven many media companies to become more partisan in their reporting and, as a result, press harder to present good news for their target audience. As such, the media will undoubtedly play a role in how the public interprets not only how, but when, votes are counted and what those results could mean.
But this is nothing new. Even in more typical election years, the official results have never been fully calculated and certified by the night of the election. Hoping to get the leg up on other news outlets, TV networks work in alliance with exit polling firms to be the first to declare a winner. As such, the results Americans see when they tune into the news aren’t verified; they’re projections. While newsrooms like ABC wait until their models are 99.5% confident in the victor before issuing a projection, the uncertainty surrounding mail-in ballots and other procedures may be tough to incorporate to even the best statistical models.
This trend of calling elections before the true vote count has been released could be especially harmful this year. Typically, results can take all night to trickle in and are followed by a concession speech from the losing candidate early the next morning. This year, Democrats and Republicans alike have raised doubts about whether the process will be conducted fairly.
For months, President Donald Trump has attacked absentee voting, claiming it allows “fraud like you’ve never seen.” Because of this, he has refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power if he loses and demanded that the election be called on November 3rd. If it’s not, Trump says he’ll be “counting on the federal court system” he packed with right-wing judges to declare a winner — something many have viewed as an open admission that he intends to use the Supreme Court to steal the election.
Anticipating a battle ahead, Vice President Joe Biden and his campaign have begun putting together a legal response team. The team is being prepped to fight any disputes that may arise if, as many predict, mail-in voting is heavily Democratic.
Since the mail-in vote is predicted to be largely Democratic and the in-person vote largely Republican, Trump may take an early lead in many states as absentee ballots take longer to count. This is dangerous because Trump will likely declare himself the winner of those states and organizations like Fox News will immediately follow, causing liberal outlets to feel like they should declare early for Joe Biden to level the playing field.
Of course, this will all be dependent on the regulations each state has put in place for counting and certifying votes. Just because you mailed in your ballot a few weeks ago doesn’t mean it’s been counted. Some states — Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Alabama, and Mississippi — don’t begin processing them until November 3rd. Everywhere else, the process is started before then and will likely have more accurate results on Election Night.
Still, it is important to avoid calling states prematurely. Declarations one way or another can discourage voters from heading to the polls. As such, Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Apple News have all taken efforts to counter the spread of misinformation on Election Day, and it will be important for media outlets to follow their lead and do everything in their power to prepare Americans for the near certainty that Election Night will be less a sprint and more a marathon — one that could take days, possibly even weeks.