Author: Reporter

Behind the curtain: How news outlets plan to explain election reporting to combat misinformation

“The Associated Press” will have thousands of people on hand to count votes and declare winners and losers in the U.S. election, continuing a tradition that began in 1848. There is an even greater priority this year on explaining that process to outsiders. The AP has already run a series of stories outlining how everything works, and has a team of reporters who will be assigned on election night to write in plain language why it is “calling” key individual states for presidential candidates Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. Similar plans are afoot at other news organizations. At the...

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Protecting democracy from Trump: Next January 6’s election certification will get extra security

In an effort to prevent another riot like the one on January 6, 2021, the Homeland Security secretary has designated the congressional count and certification of the presidential election as a national special security event overseen by the Secret Service. Both political parties’ national conventions, the presidential inauguration and the U.N. General Assembly already have this designation, but it is the first time the January 6 vote count and certification have received it. The Secret Service said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas made the designation following a request from the mayor of Washington, D.C. The move means these are...

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A System of Neglect: How the Electoral College puts most American voters on the sidelines

On a table at the office of the Waukegan Township Democrats sits a box of postcards with Wisconsin addresses that were collected during a postcard-writing pizza party to help turn out voters there. Leaning against the table are homemade Harris-Walz signs. “We know they’re handing these out everywhere in Wisconsin,” said Matt Muchowski, chair of the Democratic club. “Here in Waukegan, it’s been harder to get a hold of Harris yard signs, so we’re printing out our own.” One reason they have been in short supply: Waukegan is in Illinois, which is not a presidential swing state. It just...

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Fact Check: A list of false claims spread by Russia and Trump operatives to influence the 2024 election

A steady stream of false and misleading information is spreading online around the 2024 election. A video circulating widely on social media that shows a man who says he is a Haitian immigrant claiming he is planning to vote multiple times in Georgia is fake. U.S. intelligence officials confirmed on November 1 that the video is the work of Russian influence creators. Here is a look at the facts. VIDEO THAT CLAIMS TO SHOW A HAITIAN IMMIGRANT WHO PLANS TO VOTE MULTIPLE TIMES IN GEORGIA IS FAKE CLAIM: A video shows a Haitian immigrant talking about how he intends...

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Fact Check: How Trump is promoting election lies to prepare for challenging the 2024 results if he loses

Donald Trump has spent months laying the groundwork to challenge the results of the 2024 election if he loses, just as he did four years ago. At rally after rally, he urges his supporters to deliver a victory “too big to rig,” telling them the only way he can lose is if Democrats cheat. He has refused to say, repeatedly, whether he will accept the results regardless of the outcome, like he refused in 2020. And as he has fallen behind in the polls, he has claimed cheating is already underway by citing debunked claims or outrageous theories with...

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When Trump politicized what was once traditionally a routine duty to certify a free and fair election

For the outcome of this year’s presidential race, it will be the vote count on election night and possibly in the days after that will grab the public’s attention. But those numbers are unofficial until the election is formally certified — a once uneventful process that has become politicized since then-President Donald Trump tried to overturn his reelection loss four years ago. Trump unsuccessfully pressured fellow Republicans on an evenly divided board that had to sign off on Michigan’s vote not to certify his loss in the state. On January 6, 2021, he directed his supporters to march to...

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