It's 12:30 a.m. and I'm still at the AP bureau in Phoenix. I just finished reporting the presidential primary voting results for Maricopa County. It was quite the rush - not so much the part about incessantly clicking the refresh page on the county recorder's Web site, but being the first source of information for news outlets across the country.
My task was task to monitor the Maricopa county recorder's Web site and retrieve election results as they were updated. We read digits straight off the screen. My only immediate accuracy check was the person on the other line at the AP Elections Center, who repeated the numbers back to me. I had a contact down at the Arizona secretary of state's office in case something went wrong, but everything flowed smoothly. It took four hours for 100 percent of Maricopa's 397 precincts to report results. Pima County's results still are not available in full.
Arizona was an easy call for Clinton and McCain, though I was again reminded of the danger of making an early decision when AP had to recall their race results for Missouri. Originally, they stated Clinton as the winner, but then Obama pulled ahead for the victory. Reporting too early in an effort to be the first comes with the danger of being wrong and thus eroding credibility. Back in the 2004 presidential race, the AP was lauded for holding its tongue on calling the winner of Florida, while other news outlets went ahead with calling inaccurate results.
All in all, a rewarding experience.
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