SND Chicago

After decades of relying on in-person exit polls to help call winners and tell the story of Election Day, the Associated Press debuted a replacement in 2018: VoteCast, a new approach to election research. Developed in collaboration with NORC at the University of Chicago, one of the world’s premier academic research institutions, VoteCast is designed for an electorate that is voting early, absentee and by mail in greater numbers with each passing election.

Combing innovations in survey methodology with a massive data collection effort, VoteCast offered research on voter attitudes nationally and in all 47 states contesting statewide elections in 2018, including details about the opinions of registered voters who chose not to cast a ballot.

As part of VoteCast, AP also created systems for automating the creation of text and visual content, allowing it to provide an unprecedented level of multi-format state-by-state reporting on “why the winners won” on Election Day.

The AP team that created VoteCast will discuss why they chose to abandon exit polls, their new approach to election polling, how they expanded their visual storytelling and their plans to do more – and enable AP member newsrooms and VoteCast customers to do more – in 2020 and beyond.