Tuesday’s the end of an election season unlike any other.
It’s the final day Floridians will be able to vote in the 2020 race for President, on proposed constitutional amendments and a slew of state and local races.
Record numbers of people are expected to vote – many of them before Tuesday. That – and the precautions needed as the state continues to grapple with the coronavirus - means election night may not look or sound like it has in the past.
This year, results also might come in later than usual, but that is due to a change in how people are voting during the pandemic, not malfeasance or fraud. We’re here to deliver you the facts.
What can I expect election night?
- WUSF and NPR will be providing you with special coverage of the election starting Tuesday at 7 p.m. online and on WUSF 89.7. We’ll be providing national updates from NPR throughout the evening, while Florida Matters host Bradley George and our newsroom will be providing you reports from the greater Tampa Bay region.
- We will be careful not to engage in speculation or predictions. We will provide facts, and what we know at any given moment. We won’t treat the results like a horse race.
- We’ll report results from state and local elections offices, and like NPR, we will rely on the Associated Press for all vote counts and race calls for elections. In the 2020 U.S. general election, the AP will declare winners in more than 7,000 races – from the White House to every seat in 50 state legislatures. To do so, AP uses regional stringers who collect votes at a local level, while other AP journalists gather results from state or county websites, as well as via electronic data feeds from states. Want to know more, check out this story from our political desk at NPR.
What are we reporting on?
- WUSF News has focused on voters and issues that matter to them all year, and we’ll continue on Tuesday. You’ll can share your thoughts on voting on our Facebook page, by tagging @wusf on Twitter, or through this simple form.
- We’ll will be monitoring local voter turnout all day, and checking in with elections offices in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk, Manatee and Sarasota Counties to see how voting is going.
- On WUSFNews.org, we’ll being updating results for Congress, state House and Senate, and major county offices. There, you’ll also find links to individual election offices, so you can easily search for any local races you want.
- We’ll provide you context, including how the votes on the proposed constitutional amendments. We’ll explain what the results mean to you, and to the future of local, state and national government. We won’t report on rumors.
- We will remind you about the process, especially because the results will not be official Tuesday, or Wednesday, or even the day after that. The American voting process is designed with a lot of checks and balances. And there could be legal challenges. It’s important to remember we may not know the outcome for a while.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
