By LAUREN SEARS
News Editor
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The first Tuesday in Nov. marks Election Day here in the United States. Citizens exercise their 15th Amendment right to vote, and voice their opinions about the elections that they can participate in.
However, for anyone who works in the news industry, whether newspapers or broadcast news networks and channels, Election Day/Night is the busiest day of the year.
I currently work at WNYT NewsChannel 13 as an associate producer. So when I was put on the schedule to work on Election Night, I was ecstatic!
I have been dreaming of being in a newsroom on Election Night since I was a little girl watching Dan Rather report the results.
I imagined papers flying everywhere, people running in and out of the newsroom, and people gathered around TVs and computer screens, trying to find out as much information as possible, as quickly as possible.
Well, it turns out that my imagination wasn’t that far off.
My job on Election Night was to help with anything that needed to be done. So I closely monitored the governor’s races in NY, MA and VT, as well as some local races that were also going on.
I kept checking the AP wires for results, and I was constantly refreshing Twitter to make sure that we weren’t missing anything.
Early in the evening, we just had to wait until results came through from the precincts. That part was the hardest, because nothing was happening.
However, as we got closer to the newscast, things went from 0 to 100 in seconds. Results were pouring in, and all of sudden we had two close races to watch.
It ended up being that the races for governor in MA and VT were extremely close.
Perhaps the most exciting part of the night was getting to work with coworkers who I don’t get to work with often.
I was amazed at how every single person working on Election Night- reporters, producers, anchors, engineers, photographers, editors, graphic designers, web producers, and directors- proved to be essential to the success of our coverage.
Everyone had a role to play, even if it was small. We all worked together to produce great coverage.
I am looking forward to working many more years in a newsroom on Election Night, because you never know what will happen, and every year you can learn how to make your role better the next year.
