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The AP Election Transparency Project

Overview

Each election, The Associated Press (AP), alongside other journalists and citizen observers, plays an important role in monitoring and informing the public of election results. The AP sends its personnel to polling places across the country to collect vote information, and offers election coverage aimed at informing the electorate and debunking misinformation. This firsthand observation of the election process helps to bolster public confidence in the integrity of the results. AP reporters must therefore be able to cover the election free from impediments to the access allowed under state and federal law to all aspects of the election, including polling places, ballots, vote counting processes, and election results.

The AP has worked with the Yale Law School Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic (MFIA) and Protect Democracy to create legal memos outlining journalists’ legal rights to observe election processes in nine key battleground states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina,  Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. We’re making the memos available to journalists and the public here.

The full-length memos for each state are here below:

Arizona full memo

Florida full memo

Georgia full memo

Michigan full memo

North Carolina full memo

Ohio full memo

Pennsylvania full memo

Texas full memo

Wisconsin full memo

The one-page summaries for each state are here below:

Arizona one-page summary

Florida one-page summary

Georgia one-page summary

Michigan one-page summary

North Carolina one-page summary

Ohio one-page summary

Pennsylvania one-page summary

Texas one-page summary

Wisconsin one-page summary

More on the Associated Press Election Transparency Project Here

To Download the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Election Legal Guide, See here.