Election night is Tuesday. People across the country will be tuning in on TV to watch the live results come in. But where do these results come from? The answer is a little closer to home than you may realize.
For many races, the results will be gathered at the temporary Associated Press Election Center located at Eastern Washington University, where EWU students are training to become temporary AP employees on election night.
The center is operated through a partnership between the university and the AP.
Dana Bloch, the AP’s operational director for Spokane, says EWU students provide an important function on election night.
“They are journalists,” Bloch said. “They are taking numbers from our reporters in the field, and entering them into our system. Those numbers are then sent out to newspapers, internet and TV around the country and the world. So what the students here are entering here is the primary source for election results on election night.”
The center has been hiring EWU students every election year since 2000.
“It’s been phenomenal,” said Bloch. “Students here are very conscientious, quick learners and very pleasant to work with.”
Many of the participants are journalism students advised by Jamie Neely, the director of EWU’s journalism program.
“I’ve noticed students get really excited to be able to be part of it,” Neely said. “It’s a way to be able to gain professional experience working alongside the professionals at the Associated Press.”
And students leave the experience with stories to tell.
“Students walk into my class after the project excited to share their experience with the rest of the class,” said Neely. “They’re usually pretty exhilarated. Especially during the 2016 election, they had lots of stories to share in class.”
Students of other majors participate as well. Senior Christopher Garcia has his BA in political science, and is working on a second degree in economics.
“It kind of relates to my major of political science,” Garcia said. “To participate in our nation’s system of democracy and voting.”
Garcia also took part in the program in 2016.
“The (2016) election was actually really intense knowing that every key note that I was putting in represented other people’s opinions and possible outcomes,” Garcia said.
James Headley is a professor of political science at EWU
“The AP project allows Eastern students a really interesting seat on election night,” Headley said. “It’s a different vantage point than political science majors and other majors might have normally, and it’s really unique.”
It is unique. Bloch says EWU is the only university in the country with such a partnership with the AP. The AP does have other result centers, but not on college campuses.
Steve Blewett is the former director of the EWU journalism program. He says the program started when the AP contacted local universities during the summer of 2000. He says EWU jumped at the opportunity. Though retired, he still oversees the university’s end of the program today.
“The AP asked me if I would continue for as long as I would like to,” Blewett said. “Mainly because I set the system up.”
Blewett says the center handles election results in Washington D.C. and 17 states, including Idaho and California.