Explaining Election 2024

Voters today have some options in terms of how they vote and when they vote, and the main choices are voting in person at a polling place on Election Day, voting early in person before Election Day, or voting by mail.

The 2024 presidential election is likely to be decided by a few thousand voters in a handful of states, just as the previous two presidential elections were. Here are the types of areas to find the voters who might decide the election

Voting machines have been at the center of a web of conspiracy theories since the 2020 election, with false claims that they were manipulated to steal the presidency from Donald Trump.

One question will be asked over and over again on election night: who won? The Associated Press will answer that question for nearly 7,000 races across the country and up and down the ballot. Here is how the AP declares winners in elections.

Donald Trump and many local Republican elected officials say they want to count ballots by hand rather than trust machines to tabulate the vote. But hand-counting is actually more prone to error, delays results, and is labor intensive.

The U.S. general election this November will decide the country’s direction, but it is far from a nationally administered contest. Here’s a look at some notable caveats, edge cases, and oddities in certain states for the 2024 election.

Administering an election is a balancing act that requires tabulating and releasing results as fast as possible, making it easy for as many voters as possible to participate, and keeping elections secure and voters confident in the process.

Unlike many countries, U.S. elections are highly decentralized and include long lists of races. Elections for president and Congress all the way down to local offices are run by county, town and state election officials, not by any national election officials.

The Associated Press has been counting the vote in US elections since 1848, and today it is one massive operation. Here’s how it works.

AP VoteCast is a comprehensive survey that tells you what’s on voters minds. It takes a detailed snapshot of the American electorate and really tells the story behind the election results.

There will be races this year that are so close that election officials will have to recount the votes to make sure they have the correct outcome, but a recount rarely changes the winner.

Explaining Election Day: How the Electoral College works

Figuring out who won any election once voting has concluded essentially boils down to two fundamental questions: How many votes have been cast for each candidate so far and how many ballots still need to be counted.