NEW YORK (AP) — The massacre of 26 children and staff at a Connecticut elementary school, along with other mass shootings, was 2012's top news story, according to the annual Associated Press poll of editors and news directors.

The shootings edged out the U.S. election, in one of the closest contests since the AP poll began in 1936.

The results followed a decision by the AP to re-conduct the voting. The initial round of balloting ended a day before the Connecticut shootings. In that poll, the election was No. 1, followed by Superstorm Sandy. An entry for mass shootings that focused on the rampage at a Colorado movie theater placed sixth.

In the new poll, the mass shootings received 68 first-place votes out of 173 ballots, compared to 65 first-place votes for the election.