Although the Detroit News claimed, for the upcoming broadcast over its station, 8MK, that "This will be the first radio phone returns of a presidential election ever transmitted", Lee DeForest had actually done the same thing previously in 1916, over station 2XG in New York City.
 
Detroit News, October 29, 1920, page 1:
 
      COX  OR  HARDING?      
YES  OR  NO?
________

The  News  Will  Tell  You  First  Through  the
Greatest  Election  Return  Services  Ever
Established  in  Michigan

    Beginning at eight o'clock and until 12 midnight Tuesday, every facility of The News will be mustered to give Detroit the quickest election news service that has ever been obtained in Michigan. Returns will be flashed from The News Building to a screen opposite which will be easily visible to the public from either Lafayette or Second Boulevards. Between the flashes, motion pictures and animated cartoons by members of The News will entertain spectators.

RETURNS  BY  RADIO  PHONE

    Those having wireless telephones are urged to make up parties and get the election news by this novel method. Musical numbers will also be sent by radio between flashes of the returns. This will be the first radio phone returns of a presidential election ever transmitted.

CLUBS,  SOCIETIES,  CHURCHES  AND
LODGES  MAY  ARRANGE  FOR  NEWS
TELEPHONE  BULLETINS

    Regularly listed clubs, churches, lodges, schools and societies may arrange to get the election returns hot off The News wires by calling Cherry 7500, Line 31, between 8 a. m. and 8 p. m., Friday and Saturday, and 8 a. m. to 12 noon on Monday. No application will be received later than Monday noon.
    The Detroit News has augmented its telephone facilities and installed special equipment to be able to render Detroit's organization's the finest election bulletin services obtainable in Michigan. Clubs and lodges which have obtained The News service must not use their telephones for other than receiving election returns between the hours of 8 and 12 p. m., Tuesday. No incoming or individual calls will be received between these hours. Such lines as obtained the new service must wait for the bell to ring and answer promptly by removing the receiver. Immediately after the bulletin is transmitted the receiver must be replaced.
    Organizations will be called and given the latest News bulletins, covering national and local issues just as fast as humanly possible.

MAKE  YOUR  APPLICATIONS  EARLY
October 31, 1920, page 1:

News  to  Spread  Election  Returns  by  4  Channels
_____________
ALL manner of Detroiters desiring returns from Tuesday's election are to be supplied. For those who must have the bulletins hot from the tabulators' desks there will be a multiple telephone service connected with clubs, lodges, churches and societies. For those who delight in the cheery bustle of downtown Detroit on election night, there will be placed a screen opposite The News Building on Lafayette boulevard, on which motion pictures and cartoons will be shown, while slides containing the latest figures are being prepared. For those who refuse to brave the chill of the November evening and prefer to stay quietly at home there will be special editions of The News containing up-to-the-minute information.
    The radiophone of The News will be ready to supply those possessing receiving equipment. Three hundred wireless operators in Detroit and vicinity are expected to tune-in at 8 p. m. Music by The Detroit News Band will intersperse the sending of the bulletins.
    Amateurs are asked to refrain from sending messages, as far as possible, that election listeners may have a clearer field.
    Those desiring to receive the regular telephone service must call Cherry 7500, Line 31, sometime between 8 a. m. and noon Monday and make arrangements. Organizations receiving this service must not use their telephones for other than election returns between 8 p. m. and midnight Tuesday. They will stand by and await the ringing of the bell, the signal that more news of the various national, state, county and city campaigns is ready.
    The entire staff of The News has been reorganized to place the election night service on the highest efficiency basis, and this result, it is anticipated, will successfully rival any newspaper enterprise in the Middle West.
November 1, 1920, page 1:
 
            Come,  See  The  News  Returns,            
Motion  Pictures  and  Cartoons.
________

    Everyone  is  invited  to  The  News'  showing  of  Election  Returns  on  Tuesday  evening  from  8  to  12.  The  News  screen  will  be  easily  visible  to  observers  from  both  Layfayette  and  Second  Boulevards.
    Being  served  by  more  news  gathering  agencies  than  any  other  paper  in  Michigan,  The  News  will  be  able  to  give  Detroit  the  most  complete  and  fastest  service  available.
    Between the showing of Election Returns, spectators will be entertained with motion pictures produced by the Famous Players, Fox and Pathe companies. Cartoons by members of The News staff will also be shown.
    Radio phone service for those who might have this equipment will be continuous from eight to midnight. Musical selections by artists of The News Band will be sent as well as news of the election. Invite your friends to listen to this novel instrument.

The  Detroit  News
"Always  in  the  Lead"
November 3, 1920, pages 1-2:

SCREEN,  RADIO  GIVE  RETURNS
______

The  Detroit  News  Adds  Facilities  of  Cinema,  Wireless  to  Power  of  Presses.
______

    How the eager public got the news as fast as the votes were counted is an election story of itself. They got it, Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, more quickly and in completer compass in Detroit and Michigan than ever before.
    This fact was due to a well-matured plan of the Detroit News to put across a "scoop" that was somewhat unique. This was to beat itself-- the printed pages of the extra editions--by giving the public figures and interpretative comment on the election returns the minute the wires caught them up throughout the state and nation.
    Another unique fact, what that not merely the home crowd Detroit people got this service, but far distant and widely scattered sections of the state listened in when the reports were disseminated. This was by virtue of inclusion of the radio telephone in the elaborate system of diffusion.
TOWN  CRIER  RETURNS.
    In the early days of this country the town crier was the boy who spread the intelligence of extraordinary events. The newspaper extra eventually took his job away from him. Now witness the advent of the town crier multiplied by many persons, a small army of news disseminators armed with moving picture camera and stereopticon, with several systems of interlocked telephone wires, and atop of all a wonderful machine into which operators talk familiarly to citizens from 50 to 200 miles distant from The News' office.
    Along with the information went entertainment. But first as to the organization of the bulletin service, as it was read or listened to by many thousand people.
    The Detroit News is served by three press associations of national and international scope. In addition there is an organization of special correspondents touching all important centers outside the state and another that completely covers Michigan. In the local field more than 100 men, women and boys operate along definite lines of duty within the city limits.
ASSEMBLING  THE  REPORTS.
    These are the agencies of collection. They gather up the scattered figures and facts and pour them into the main office, over the wires and by hand delivery of ballots marked with totals for the election precincts. In the office goes on, meantime, the operation of assembling the reports, tabulating and totaling figures and drawing out the interpretative facts which the figures reveal. This is the work of a distinctive organization.
    Much that came in was detail necessary for the complete story of the morrow. Much, also, was illuminative of the drift of events. This last was what the public got on the screen spread over the face of a three-story building across Lafayette avenue from The News office, over a special telephone wire into the telephone company's main office, where the bulletins were taken down for six operators, each talking into a system of interlinked phones. And duplicate copies of the bulletins went into the radio room.
    The speed developed was marvelous. Repeatedly it was noticed that not more than 90 seconds elapsed from the instant the bulletin was struck off the news room before it was on the screen.
    By 10:30 o'clock last night, it is safe to say, the crowds viewing or listening to The News' bulletins knew as much about the practical results of all the big contests as they know today.
    While the figures came haltingly, there was lighter entertainment for the crowds. Moving picture reels furnished by the Paramount, Fox, and Pathe companies, supplemented with original cartoon drawings by artists of The News staff, and verbal comment of a light nature, held the spectators till midnight.