Thanks for bringing this up.

I have questions about the whole thing, too.

1. Isn't there a government agency that collects all the election data? Shouldn't there be? With public access.

2. If all the election information is being funneled into one giant entity, where is the independent check?

3. What is the AP? Is it a non-profit organization? Is it part of the government? Is it a private company? Who controls it? Who owns it? Who can review it?

4. Who had access to all that information as it originally came in? The public? The political parties? Did both political parties have equal access? At the same time?

5. Is there a log of when specific precinct information came in, and a log of when it was then fed to the media?

6. Since all election voting precinct totals should be available to the public and not the private property of a private entity, how can citizens go about accessing this information? Is there an AP website with the raw data? We have all seen the polished summaries. But where is the detailed information?

7. What was to stop an outside unauthorized entity from tapping into this information? Wasn't this information being given to the media before polls closed and people had finished voting?

There probably are sensible answers to all these questions.

We could solve so many problems by having paper trail voting machines. Or just vote on paper ballots to begin with. I want to believe in our voting system. I really do.

Associated Press is a private company. They issue press releases to the major networks on the news. They are all owned by predominately Republicans. You can find other articles on "privatization of our vote".
The machines that we vote on is just one issue. Who counts the votes and who has access to the machines that tabulate our votes is just as important if not more so.
Each county has a county election commission and their own equipment. Each state has a secretary of state who makes alot of decisions regarding the election process and which county gets what equipment. They have to follow the election laws of the federal government but the laws are open to interpretation.
We had major voting reform following the 2000 debacle called HAVA in 2002.
See the following site:
http://www.demos-usa.org/page54.cfm
I do not know who has access to the equipment and who actually programs the machines that tabulate the votes, but I think it is either AP or the manufacturer of the machine such as Diebold or ES&S. Apparently, the government does not audit their procedures or their programs, nor do they certify the machines.
By the way, I think AP was the exclusive contractor for the exit polls, which we are now told were wrong.
If anyone has better information and knows how the election process works, please post.