The country trials its first presidential election amid the COVID-19 pandemic, creating concerns of results and the information leading up to them.

The results will be declared, as they have for more than 170 years, it is just a matter of when.  

That being said, the Iowa State Daily will not be making any “calls” on the election because we will rely on the Associated Press’s (AP) count of votes. AP has had a running history of accurate reports of results and will declare the winners in some 7,000 races, including the presidential.

The Daily will provide live, online coverage on the 2020 election based on the winners declared by state-based analysts and editors in Washington at the AP Decision Desk, along with any other events that take place throughout the night.

The Daily will be live tweeting updates on @ISDpolitics and @iowastatedaily on Twitter. Updates and visuals will also be posted on the website, iowastatedaily.com, and on Instagram @iowastatedaily.

Barriers such as the pandemic, postal delay and local court rulings on voter registration laws have managed to be hurdled by the 90 million Americans who have already cast a vote. Still, concerns surrounding delayed election results are a likely outcome of these barriers as well.

We are here to settle those concerns and will ensure accurate results when they are declared. 

We will not report projected results by news outlets that are not the AP. The Daily will refrain from “projections” in accordance with AP. 

“AP does not make projections or name apparent or likely winners,” according to the AP website. “If our race callers cannot definitively say a candidate has won, we do not engage in speculation.”