How the Associated Press determines race winners on Election Day

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The Associated Press, a trusted nonpartisan source for nearly two centuries, will monitor the vote counts and declare the winners on Tuesday's Election Day.

On election night, the AP will count the vote in nearly 7,000 races, delivering the results up and down the ballot from president, governor and Congress to local elections. That includes Ohio elections like U.S. Senate race between Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and Republican candidate Bernie Moreno, the Ohio Supreme Court race, and if Issue 1, the effort to overhaul how statewide voting districts are set, passes.

"For more than 175 years, The Associated Press has been trusted to accurately deliver the results of the U.S. election without fear or favor," said Julie Pace, AP Senior Vice President and Executive Editor. "AP stands ready once again to count the vote, declare the winners and cover the results."

AP's network of reporters nationwide will collect election results at a local level on Tuesday, gathering data at precinct locations and county election offices as soon as polls close. Those reporters then call in the results to a vote entry clerk, who keys in the results to AP's election system. Those clerks also enter results from official sources online, such as county and state election websites, and monitor automated data feeds provided by election officials in some states.

The agency said it then double checks the results and then checks again. Vote results are subject to intense verification efforts so that AP's vote count and the race calls that follow are unfailingly accurate.

Results are then sent to news organizations that report them on air and online. Results are updated in real-time throughout the evening and the days following Election Day until every race is called and state officials certify their results as final.

AP said it plans to be more transparent than ever about how it is calling key races, which is part of an effort to help build public confidence in election results. No news organization has been calling elections longer than the AP, and that, with the agency's gold standard record of accuracy and a nonpartisan approach, should give the public confidence, AP said.

"Our motivations are simple: we want to get the calls right and we want to inform the public quickly," the agency said. "We have no political agenda or rooting interest in the outcome of the elections. We are focused on the facts and delivering the results accurately."