The Block: AP partners with Everipedia to publish election-day race calls

News wire service Associated Press (AP) is collaborating with EOS-based blockchain startup Everipedia to publish its national and state race calls data for the U.S. election in November .

Race calls are an important Election Day dataset for the AP, which has been collecting U.S. elections voting data since 1848. AP staffers in every state called race callers draw on voting numbers, historical data, and information about demographics to declare a winner without necessarily waiting for all the votes to be counted. This year, the AP will publish race calls on Everipedia's encyclopedia, which was built on the EOS blockchain.

According to AP’s director of enterprise, ESG and data licensing Dwayne Desaulniers, publishing the data with Everipedia will provide an extra layer of verification in addition to helping distribute the information collected from the 7000 races happening on November 3.

This is the first time AP’s election data will be published on blockchain, but the company has experimented with the technology before. In 2018, it teamed up with the now-defunct blockchain journalism startup Civil on a project that was focused on licensing articles.