ABC News PRESS RELEASE
OCTOBER 26, 2004
Extensive
Election Night Coverage on All ABC News Platforms
November 2
ABC News
Election Night coverage
launches on all platforms – the ABC Television Network, “ABC News Now,”
ABC
News Radio, and ABCNEWS.com – on November 2.
Peter Jennings will anchor comprehensive
coverage of election results and live reports from battleground states,
beginning with “World News Tonight with Peter Jennings” at 6:30 p.m. EST
on the ABC Television Network.
Mr. Jennings will be joined on the air by a
team of ABC News anchors, correspondents, and analysts including -
- “This
Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos
in New York
- “Good
Morning America Weekend Edition” anchor Kate
Snow with developments in congressional and gubernatorial races
- Correspondent
Jake Tapper monitoring voting
procedures and voter contact with “Ballot Watch” reports
- ABC
News political director Mark Halperin and
polling director Gary Langer
- ABC
News commentators Cokie Roberts, Fareed
Zakaria and George Will
- Terry Moran live from Bush/Cheney 2004
headquarters in Washington, DC
- Dean Reynolds live from Kerry/Edwards 2004
headquarters in Boston, MA
- Bob Woodruff, Claire Shipman, Linda
Douglass, John Quinones, John Donvan,
and Tamala Edwards live from
battleground states
- presidential
historian Michael Beschloss in Washington,
DC
- NPR
and PBS anchor Tavis Smiley in Los Angeles
ABC
News’ “Ballot Watch” will focus on voting
mistakes, errors, or practices which may affect the outcome of the
presidential
race. A regular report on all broadcasts,
this intensive effort will follow casting and counting issues as many
states
introduce new absentee ballot casting measures, early voting, and
electronic
voting machines. ABC News encourages
citizens to relay information on the mechanics of voting and voter
contact by
e-mailing the ABC News Political Unit at politicalunit@abcnews.com.
In
addition to this extensive coverage on November 2, “World News
Tonight with Peter Jennings” and “Nightline” will dedicate
the majority of their broadcasts to
election issues and political news of the day Monday, October 25
through
Monday, November 1. ABC News’ latest tracking poll finds 95% of
likely
voters say they are closely following the race - these newscasts will
follow
the political twists and turns of the final days leading to November
2. Beginning at 7:00 a.m. EST,
“Good Morning America”
will
bring viewers complete coverage of Election Day, with live reports from
battleground states and polling places.
“Good Morning America”
will follow up with a live wrap
up of results from across the country and reaction from the campaigns
on
Wednesday, November 3.
“ABC
News Now” will produce extensive political news programming throughout
Election
Day. Chris Cuomo and Michel
Martin in Washington, DC
and Hari
Sreenivasan in New York
will anchor primetime coverage of
election results. David Kerley and Don Dahler
will anchor early coverage. They will be
joined on the air by correspondents John
Yang, Jon Karl, and Karen Travers in Washington,
DC and Dan Harris and Ed
O’Keefe
in Boston.
“ABC News Now” will also turn to three university campuses - Columbia
University, George
Washington University,
and UCLA - for the perspective of
young voters, the target of unprecedented get out the vote campaigns
this year.
ABC
affiliate stations in Ohio,
Florida, Pennsylvania,
and Michigan will
provide live reports of the
presidential race in their district on “ABC News Now.” During
scheduled station breaks on the
television network, some viewers will see “ABC News Now” coverage if
stations
opt to defer airing local news.
“ABC
News Now” is currently available to 65% of the country via digital
transmission
from numerous ABC affiliates, including all 10 Owned Stations.
Many affiliates have also arranged for
carriage on digital cable through local cable operators. “ABC
News Now” is available with a
subscription to ABC News On Demand or RealNetworks
SuperPass, to AOL members,
and to
Comcast.net, SBC Yahoo! DSL, and BellSouth FastAccess DSL
customers. “ABC News Now” is channel 5 on MobiTV, the
world’s first live television network for mobile phones, currently
available to
Sprint PCS Vision™ customers and AT&T Wireless mMode™ subscribers.
Sam Donaldson and Gil Gross will anchor ABC News Radio
coverage from New York.
Correspondents Ann Compton
and Jim Ryan will be with the Bush campaign.
Correspondents Bob Schmidt
and Aaron Katersky will be with the
Kerry campaign. National correspondent Jim Hickey and
correspondent Andrew Colton will report from the
battleground states of Ohio
and Florida.
ABC News Radio will produce a one hour special on Monday, November 1
previewing election issues and a second one hour special on Wednesday,
November
3 reviewing election results.
ABCNEWS.com,
which recently unveiled a fresh, more user-friendly design, will
provide up to
the minute results when the polls close.
Users can choose to track as many as a dozen races at once by
customizing the elections results page.
ABC
NewsOne/ABSAT correspondents Heather
Cabot, Eric Horng, Lauren Rogers, and Nancy
Weiner will provide live reports for ABC News clients and
affiliates from Washington, DC
and Boston, MA.
Keith Garvin will report from
Crawford, TX.
NewsOne/ABSAT is the newsfeed service of ABC News.
ABC News
Media Relations:
Julie Summersgill
Emily Lenzner