An election night is always interesting – but you can never get away from the waiting

When it comes to the basics of covering an election, being prepared for a long night is one of the first things to put on the list.

A tight result, wherever the election, will often leave reporters – and readers – waiting for a result that you may start to feel will never come. You can have every angle prepped for the news that does come out, and the US election provides plenty of interesting results outside of the presidential race – from congressional to state-level races, but there will always be plenty of waiting.

There is always more to write, of course, particularly when the election is as important as the battle between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Giving readers as much information as swiftly as we can is our stock in trade, as well as those analysis pieces that will make you stop and think about all the raw data you are being asked to process. But there is little to be done about the periods of waiting.

Waiting for races to be called, waiting for that dispatch to be filed from the reporter on the ground or waiting for that appearance by one of the candidates to begin. This is most evident from the various news channels on both sides of the Atlantic that had to fill hour upon hour of coverage, often knowing that the next piece of completely new information could be some time away.

This, like with The Independent, is when analysis is crucial – offering the reader or the viewer a novel way to look at the information you have. But doing it live on camera is a whole different matter. Covering an election night is always interesting. You are, generally, never quite sure what you are going to get - but I have an extra bit of respect for those that have to cover every second live on air.

Yours,

Chris Stevenson

Voices editor