[Politics] How do exit polls work? Understanding the system for gathering voter data

[Aronus]

The large-scale studies of voters now include phone calls to early and mail voters as well as interviews outside polling places on Election Day.

On Election Day, as votes are being tallied and news organizations await results and race projections that can be reported, exit polls are a critical tool providing an early look at who is voting and what’s motivating their choices. 

An exit poll is a survey of voters taken as they leave (or exit) their voting location. It’s the only national survey of known voters in the country. It allows news organizations, researchers and voters to understand what’s happening in an election as the results flow in. 

Here’s how exit polling works, where they are conducted and how NBC News will be using the exit poll results on election night and the days after.

Who conducts the exit poll?
Since 2003, Edison Research, a firm that specializes in collecting election data, has conducted exit polls on behalf of the National Election Pool. The NEP is a consortium of media networks — ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC News — that pools together resources for one collective vote count and exit poll operation. NBC News independently analyzes and reports on the exit poll results.

 

How do exit polls work? Understanding the system for gathering voter data