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Do better, AP
Thursday, Nov 10, 2022 - Posted by Rich Miller * I’ve been grumpily informing subscribers about the Associated Press’ performance for two days, but if you go to the New York Times site and pull up its list of the county-by-county vote on the proposed constitutional amendment and scroll down, you’ll see a bunch of counties that have not yet been tabulated by the Associated Press…  If you go to Kane County’s website, the results are there. The AP is just not reporting them. * The AP’s coverage of this year’s election results has been shoddy, at best. It’s far behind in way too many contests. They have, for instance, Kane County results for some local races and other top statewide races, but not for the proposed amendment. They are also claiming that 100 percent of precincts are reporting in the 45th House District and that GOP Rep. Deanne Mazzochi is ahead by 157 votes. As of right around 9 o’clock this morning, Rep. Mazzochi was trailing by 6 votes. In an age when election denial is so intense, the AP has got to stop doing stuff like this. It’s not a new problem, either. Back in 2014, you may recall, the AP stopped posting updated tallies in the super-tight state treasurer’s race. Scott Kennedy was generating up to the minute numbers, which I posted here, but no other reporters used them so their stories were just plain wrong for weeks. It was embarrassing to watch. * Back to the Workers’ Rights Amendment…
If the union total is correct, then the Workers’ Rights Amendment has enough votes to win.
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- Retired SURS Employee - Thursday, Nov 10, 22 @ 10:17 am:
If you go to the Kane County Clerk’s website and then pull up the 2022 General Election results and then click on “Referenda” not “Contest Totals” the results are right there: 81,598 in favor of the proposed amendment; 69,679 opposed. Thus, 52.46% in favor 44.80% opposed. 155,539 total ballots cast.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Nov 10, 22 @ 10:26 am:
===the results are right there===
Yes, I know. The post is about the AP, not the Kane County Clerk.
- Anyone Remember - Thursday, Nov 10, 22 @ 10:29 am:
===Do better, AP===
Three times in my life AP has said “Enola Gay” was the pilot (instead of the B-29) that dropped the A Bomb on Hiroshima.
- Nearly Normal - Thursday, Nov 10, 22 @ 10:31 am:
I found our Pantagraph coverage of the election to be scant compared in the past. There are now so few reporters on staff now that it hurts local news. The issues now include more info about Decatur area communities sometimes than our own local BloNo communities. I do not fault the reporters when they are spread so thin. That is on the Lee newspaper chain starving us.
- Retired SURS Employee - Thursday, Nov 10, 22 @ 10:42 am:
–Yes, I know. The post is about the AP, not the Kane County Clerk.–
My apologies! I failed to notice your obvious link to the Kane County Clerk’s website>
- Vote Quimby - Thursday, Nov 10, 22 @ 11:03 am:
AP must be suffering from the disease affecting most legitimate news orgs…
- H-W - Thursday, Nov 10, 22 @ 11:37 am:
I can understand the frustrations, but other things being equal, I have a preference for AP reporting and their website.
Perhaps they are overworked and understaffed these days in the era of web-surfing for profit.
Just sayin’
- John Lopez - Thursday, Nov 10, 22 @ 11:42 am:
Something unique about Kane County Clerk unofficial returns reporting, for each race, the clerk’s office reports total ballots cast.
Not every local election authority does that until the canvass is complete.
- The Velvet Frog - Thursday, Nov 10, 22 @ 11:48 am:
They also called it as passing early yesterday then quietly removed the article. I’ve seen sites say “the AP hasn’t called it” which isn’t really true.
- JoanP - Thursday, Nov 10, 22 @ 11:50 am:
= Perhaps they are overworked and understaffed these days in the era of web-surfing for profit. =
Maybe so, but it’s things like this that are the reason I prefer to follow election coverage right here on Capitol Fax.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Nov 10, 22 @ 11:53 am:
===Perhaps they are overworked and understaffed===
Please. They set themselves up as the one single authority and they have totally dropped the ball.
- Unreliable Sources - Thursday, Nov 10, 22 @ 12:34 pm:
It used to be that the AP paid an individual to personally be stationed at every election authority’s office. As the precinct results were posted, they would call an AP office in Chicago to report the vote totals and number of precincts reporting. This is where the statewide vote totals reported to every publication came from. If there were issues delaying the count, the stringers could find out the cause, the number of precincts outstanding, and how soon the delays would be rectified. Now it seems they don’t have anybody show up in person, nor are they adept at finding the results easily available on the Internet. Most of the “non-reported” jurisdictions simply don’t have websites reporting the info. That needs to rectified too.
- Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Nov 10, 22 @ 1:50 pm:
===Perhaps they are overworked and understaffed===
Perhaps they could hire more folks to work on election night. As Rich posted, they set themselves up as the go-to and then cannot deliver.
I’ll pile on with another example: The two Supreme Court races. The AP seems to have decided to watch the District 2 race (Rochford-Curran) but not District 3 (O’Brien-Burke). They were fairly up-to-date on D2, but still had old numbers on Wednesday morning. The results in D3 were all in well before midnight, MKO had a decent lead, and Burke had already conceded.
This was the case in many down-ballot races, and, because all the papers seem to rely on the AP numbers, many web sites were full of races with old, low numbers long after the county clerks had posted the final tallies and headed home.
I gave up on the media sites and browsed the county clerks throughout the night with my spreadsheet at the ready.
- Grandson of Man - Thursday, Nov 10, 22 @ 1:59 pm:
There was a blue wave or state government wins in Michigan. The Democratic Wisconsin governor keeps his job, as well as Illinois’ wins. This coincides very well with big federal/state bipartisan spending on infrastructure, which creates many union jobs. If the WRA is passed it would be even more of a testament to those who want a prosperous and secure life.
- Anon324 - Thursday, Nov 10, 22 @ 2:34 pm:
==Please. They set themselves up as the one single authority and they have totally dropped the ball.==
I posted on election night that I thought you were being generous. As time has passed, it has become more apparent that the AP just didn’t do a good job. Whether understaffed or not knowing what they are doing is ultimately irrelevant. They didn’t (and still haven’t) provided accurate information in a timely manner, which is their most important job in this situation. Why should folks be interested in their projections when it is readily apparent that they can’t even correctly collate the underlying data?