I Tracked Voting Issues For 18 Hours on Election Day. This is What I Learned.

The program relies on a collaborative network of local and national newsrooms. Internet tech companies have also been involved in creating interfaces for journalists, and even Electionland specifically. Google, for example, created a data visualization webpage that tracks the rise of key voting issues by state through the growth of related searches.

It was my first time being highly involved in an election or verifying social media information. I left with a more nuanced understanding of how the complexity of our voter administration system, and negligence of its leaders, burdens citizens. As well as how journalists are working across industries, and adapting to new information gathering methods, to garner more direct connections and solutions with the communities they serve. It’s not all praise and success though, online verification can be trauma-bating work, and many newsrooms are not set-up to create impact for communities in real-time.

Curiosity over experience
Prior to election day, all the “catchers” and “verifiers” participated in training that hoped to provide us with the experience and resources to prepare for our roles. Catchers were led through months of preparation by ProPublica. They were all practicing reporters, and were tasked with reviewing incoming tips, and passing verified ones in pitch format to local reporters. Tips came in from Electionland’s text, whatsapp, and direct social media inboxes. If a tip sounded urgent and truthful, they passed it on to their respective verifier (I was one of them).

As an amateur reporter, with only a few days of training, I was nervous. Did I have my search queries set up correctly? How would I be able to verify the location of tweets? And most importantly, would I work fast enough?

I didn’t meet my catcher until the day before elections, and we only had 10 minutes to greet each other. I could’ve practiced with early voting, but there was no way to consider the unknowns that would arise. The more I read about the voter laws, the more confused I was (much like voters).

It only took a few hours on election day to realize that my experience didn’t matter as much as my propensity to ask questions, find answers, and connect with people. Scanning for ID law issues didn’t bring me to any one blatant infraction, but instead led me to notice a lot of general confusion. My curiosity pushed me to research the ID laws with respect to specific tweets, and then find enough examples of voters being incorrectly asked for ID, or turned away because of mismatching addresses. My lack of knowing actually urged me to dig deeper.

Reporters, what’s your purpose?
My catcher and I were assigned to Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana. Some regions were one state, others were as large as four states, depending on the estimated issues that would arise. Catchers in each region were put in contact with local newsroom partners.

Issues in Indiana were made loud and clear by residents on twitter right out the gate. I had conversations with some of them and summarized findings for my catcher to put together into multiple pitches for Indiana reporters. The issues were blatantly inhibiting voters, and they started occurring early in the day, providing ample time for a reporter to get involved in holding authorities accountable for same-day solutions. Some polling stations were not open in the morning as they were supposed to be, and some completely ran out of ballots. We weren’t getting responses from our reporting partners though, and I didn’t notice any local coverage about the issues.

Electionland was created to try to help newsrooms respond more quickly to issues affecting their readers, instead of just reporting on the issues after elections are over and the time for solutions had ended. But, this relies on newsrooms aligning with this purpose, which could take major readjustments in allocated resources and the setting of individual goals. If they’re working in the same way they had prior to partnering with Electionland, they may not be ready to handle, and take action on, the incoming information. It’s not enough to just say, “I’m an Electionland partner”. Have you aligned your working capacity and editorial strategy, so that you can do the necessary work that makes the partnership a success for impacted communities?

In considering diversity in newsrooms, a organization’s ability to create structures that support the mental health of their minority staff is imperative. These systems should not rely on marginalized individuals self-advocating. As reported by Storyful, “don’t allow staffers to overburden themselves. They should take regular breaks and try and get out of the office when shifts finish….Editors should ensure they are monitoring staff for signs of trauma and fatigue. If they see the signs of stress or trauma, they should assign the journalist another task.”

There were no mandated breaks throughout my 18 hour election day shift. Although we were told we could take breaks at any time, and were provided with more than enough food and hydration, the lack of established check-ins and breaks enforced a continued working pace as the norm, especially when all Propublica staffers and catchers were stuck to their screens without any apparent issue.

I ended the week more drained than I usually feel on a Friday. Not completely sure why, I retreated into my self-care routine and engaged in introspective conversations about the week with my family, friends, and diverse cohort of social journalism classmates. It took a while for me to realize the contributing factors. I think of my self as strong person who usually has no issue communicating my needs, but now, I empathize more than ever with the many new and veteran reporters who don’t feel supported in today’s newsrooms.

Thank you poll workers

My last takeaway is about the lack of appreciation and support for poll workers. According to the Board of Elections (BOE), it took 917,694 poll workers to run the nationwide general election in 2016. You quite literally can’t vote without them. But, when they’re included in coverage about election day, it’s usually about their lack of knowledge, blaming them for incorrect information, long wait times, broken machines, and lack of preparedness. Thankfully there was increasing coverage this year that instead held BOE officials rightfully accountable.

The BEO reported that it’s very difficult to recruit poll workers, especially in metropolitan areas. Negative coverage may be a contributing factor.

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