Knight Election Hub

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5 resources

5 Weeks to Go! Coverage Roadmap for Election Reporters

A journalist roadmap for where to focus your election reporting in October.

Votebeat Beat Backgrounders

Everything you need to know to cover voting in 2024, in 30 minute doses. These courses will familiarize reporters with the basics, and provide additional materials to help them dive deeper into individual topics.

Media Guide on Covering Elections and Voting

This comprehensive guide will help you understand variability in election laws and practices, and learn how to better navigate misinformation, legal changes, and the logistical aspects of election coverage.

Elections Campaign Toolkit

Access customizable fundraising newsletters, social media copy, toppers, graphics, and more — making it easy for you and your audience to support your election coverage.

Election SOS weekly newsletter

Stay up-to-date throughout the 2024 election cycle with the latest information from Election SOS to bolster your coverage.

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4 resources

Votebeat Expert Desk

Get quick-turnaround answers from election experts — former officials, tech experts, election law scholars — in a Slack channel starting October 14, moderated by Votebeat editorial director Jessica Huseman.

Sunlight Search Training and Research

Learn how to deeply profile candidates for public office.

Swing State Data Training

Get hands-on experience with powerful tools to research donors, lobbyists, dark money, and more.

Elections Campaign Toolkit

Access customizable fundraising newsletters, social media copy, toppers, graphics, and more — making it easy for you and your audience to support your election coverage.

What's new

Check out these resources, freshly-added to the Knight Election Hub.

7 resources

Use This Story Template To Set Expectations On Results

Adapt this story template to your needs and help the public know when to expect election results.

Knight Election Law Forum

These recordings of on-the-record events discuss election law issues for national journalists, as well as state-specific conversations for Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina.

Big Local News election data tools

Big Local News has data on everything from first-time voters to voting machines, and offers support and training to newsrooms to use data for journalism.

Voter Explorer Pa.

Voter Explorer Pa., provided by The Philadelphia Inquirer, is a collection of story guides and a regularly updated database of Pennsylvania registered voters. Journalists can select voter data, filtering by age, gender, party, address, voter history, or other fields, then download the data for further analysis. Voter Explorer Pa. will help reporters quickly find local contacts for election stories; the how-to guides walk reporters through different kinds of stories that can be informed by the data.

PEN America Digital Safety & Online Abuse Prevention Workshops

Learn how to protect yourself, your colleagues, and your employees from online abuse while covering election-related stories with one of these four workshops.

Trusting News webinar series: 5 strategies for useful, trusted election coverage

Join any of these October webinars to learn tangible strategies for topics from creating coverage that reaches beyond political junkies to covering hot button issues in a way that feels credible across the complicated spectrum of viewpoints.

Information Futures Lab Election Crisis Workshop

Join an online, immersive training event that places journalists and community leaders at the center of a fast-moving, breaking election story, challenging them to make strategic reporting decisions in real time.

Cover misinformation

These tools will help you determine fact from fiction and track the sources of election-related dis- and mis-information in your community.

5 resources

Information Futures Lab Election Crisis Workshop

Join an online, immersive training event that places journalists and community leaders at the center of a fast-moving, breaking election story, challenging them to make strategic reporting decisions in real time.

Junkipedia: Cross-platform social media monitoring

Junkipedia helps reporters quickly search and investigate what politicians are saying online, across a range of mainstream and fringe social media sites.

Center for an Informed Public: Expert sources

Get expert help for misinformation-related reporting, including quotes from academic experts, historical context around election rumors, information about a specific rumor, data access and/or data visualization tools.

Authoritarian Influence Tracker

This searchable database lets users sort through Russian and Chinese governments' efforts to undermine democracy around the world.

The Poynter Institute: Politifact

This site fact checks statements from politicians and media personalities, as well as claims making the rounds on social media sites. They're also tracking the promises both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have made on the campaign trail as they run for president.

Publish election results

These resources make it easy to bring results to your audience in real-time.

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Free AP Election Data for INN members

With support from the Google News Initiative, The Associated Press is giving INN members access to U.S. election results as part of the organizations’ shared commitment to providing facts around the democratic process.

Free AP Election data, content & services for qualifying swing state newsrooms

INN or LION members in swing states can get AP's U.S. election results and content for free, as part of the organizations’ shared commitment to providing facts around the democratic process.

Cover election administration

How are your local and state elections run? These resources will help with coverage of this important topic. Click the category to view the full list of resources.

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Elections Performance Index

This tool uses factors like voting wait time, the percentage of rejected ballots and the percentage of unreturned mail ballots to evaluate state election administrators' performance, giving officials, journalists and the public ways to track the efficacy of changes to how elections are run.

Verified Voting: The Verifier

Dig in to individual county data to see the technology officials are using to count ballots. Journalists can then read more about the technology (including how it works, where else it's used and how accessible it is) and see the individual manufacturer.

Bipartisan Policy Center

This nonprofit center convenes both Republicans and Democrats to find solutions to complicated issues; one of those issues is election administration, and their work focuses on recommending solutions to the challenges officials and poll workers across the country face in holding fair, secure and accessible elections.

National Conference of State Legislatures: Election Resources

NCSL has a comprehensive list of state laws that affect elections — from how various states handle felon voting rights to poll watching to voter ID laws.

Center for Election Innovation & Research

This nonprofit works with election administrators around the country to help improve elections and increase voter trust in the process. When applicable, their research is broken down by individual states, making it easier for journalists to parse the relevant information for their communities.

Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) Comprehensive Report

The data analysis produced by this federal agency lets users search any state, territory or county for election and voting data, such as the percentage of ballots returned via drop box or the percentage of people who registered to vote in-person.

Election Integrity Scorecard

The scorecard grades and ranks states based on the election security laws that the conservative think tank recommends.

Voter registration list maintenance

This site from the National Conference of State Legislatures lays out how states can "clean" their voter rolls around the country.

Cover political violence

These resources will help your newsroom prepare for or react to election-related extremism or violence. Click the category to view the full list of resources.

3 resources

Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative: Understanding Threats and Harassment Against Local Officials

This research project tracks the threats local officials face in their communities through surveys, in-depth interviews and event data, all made available for public use.

Extremism Coverage Prep

This training from Hearken's Election SOS — available for free once participants are vetted — includes videos and other resources to help journalists and their newsrooms develop appropriate editorial policies and stay safe when covering extremism.

U.S. Department of Justice: Election Threats

This site from the DOJ collects federal guidance about how to respond to threats against election workers, and includes a list of enforcement actions involving threats to elections.

Protect yourself

Is your newsroom prepared for online or physical attacks? These resources are designed to get you the support you need to take care of your colleagues.

3 resources

Coalition Against Online Violence: Resources for Journalists

This resource from the International Women's Media Foundation and the International Center for Journalists lays out what journalists need to to to protect themselves in various scenarios, including if they've been doxxed, are in the middle of an online attack or just want to prepare for the possibility of online abuse.

PEN America Digital Safety & Online Abuse Prevention Workshops

Learn how to protect yourself, your colleagues, and your employees from online abuse while covering election-related stories with one of these four workshops.

Extremism Coverage Prep

This training from Hearken's Election SOS — available for free once participants are vetted — includes videos and other resources to help journalists and their newsrooms develop appropriate editorial policies and stay safe when covering extremism.

Cover voting rights/legal issues

From watching how laws are enforced on Election Day itself to keeping tabs on post-election lawsuits, these resources will help you stay informed. Click the category to view the full list of resources.

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Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press: Election Legal Guide

This organization supports reporters around the country, protecting their legal rights. One of their initiatives is an extensive Election Legal Guide, outlining journalists' rights while covering campaign events and reporting around polling places. There is more in-depth information for a handful of battleground states, and the guide is available in both English and Spanish.

Democracy Docket: Court Case Database

This online site founded by Democratic attorney Marc Elias includes a searchable database of decided and pending court cases shaping voting rights around the country.

Knight Election Law Forum

These recordings of on-the-record events discuss election law issues for national journalists, as well as state-specific conversations for Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina.

State Voting Rights Tracker

This tracker lets users search for individual bills and laws by state or issue, and offers analysis of the measure's potential impact. Great for looking at common trends in election-related legislation.

Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections

This group formed by former Republican officials funds election legal challenges that they view as undermining democracy. They argue for election rules established by lawmakers — not the courts — and the enforcement of election laws.

Media Guide on Covering Elections and Voting

This comprehensive guide will help you understand variability in election laws and practices, and learn how to better navigate misinformation, legal changes, and the logistical aspects of election coverage.

Protect the Vote: Legal Activity

This site run by the Republican National Committee tracks legal challenges to election laws that involve the RNC and Republican groups across the country.

Plan election coverage

How will your newsroom cover the lead-up to November 5, the day itself, and the post-election period? Here are some tools that can help your planning.

4 resources

MuckRock expert consulting on FOIA or document-display projects

Get custom training and coaching from MuckRock on an intensive public records project or a strategy for large-scale document display. Potential projects could involve many aspects of election coverage: voting machine security, gauging impacts of disinformation, cybersecurity intrusions and responses, threats and violence in the run up to voting day.

Election SOS Key Dates & Trainings Calendar

This Google Calendar maintained by Election SOS provides key dates in the election cycle alongside free training for journalists on a variety of topics. Click the link to subscribe.

Election SOS weekly newsletter

Stay up-to-date throughout the 2024 election cycle with the latest information from Election SOS to bolster your coverage.

Trusting News webinar series: 5 strategies for useful, trusted election coverage

Join any of these October webinars to learn tangible strategies for topics from creating coverage that reaches beyond political junkies to covering hot button issues in a way that feels credible across the complicated spectrum of viewpoints.