“Counting 2020 election results not as simple as 1-2-3”

“There aren’t that many people outside politics who even understand how the numbers are tabulated in Illinois, let alone that you can get one-stop shopping for vote totals at the Georgia Secretary of State but have to collect the data individually from several hundred townships in Maine.

As it turns out, Decision Desk HQ president and founder Drew McCoy even knew that his organization stations a reporter in person on election night at the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners because that allows it to receive up-to-the-minute results slightly faster than if it waited for the board to upload the data to its public website.

I didn’t realize that was possible and tried to argue the point, but then checked with Chicago election board spokesman Jim Allen, who confirmed McCoy was correct and that anyone at board headquarters has an advantage in getting results faster — anywhere from five to eight minutes, by his estimate.

That may not seem like much, but in the current speed competitive media landscape, that could be the difference of being the first outlet to report a winner online or on the air.

Decision Desk HQ has been around since 2012, having identified a need for smaller media outlets to have their own, less expensive, source for election data.”

You can read the full story here.

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