As voters in New Jersey and New York City cast their votes on Tuesday, the final polls of the campaign season are underway for near-real-time insights.
Even when you learn which way the actual ballots were cast, exit polling helps tell a story the numbers don’t reveal by themselves.
How does an exit poll work?
The exit poll is conducted in a random sample of selected polling places. At least one interviewer is assigned to each polling place on Election Day. Interviewers follow local rules about where they can stand in relation to the polling location. The interview is self-administered, meaning the respondent fills out the survey on their own.
Then, the interviewers call in their results throughout the day.
What questions are asked?
The exit poll asks voters which candidates they supported, as well as other attitudinal and issue-based questions, such as, “What is the most important issue to your vote?”
The other key component of an exit poll is asking about a voter’s demographics, such as age, gender, race, and education. These types of questions help illustrate how different groups voted and what mattered to them, and they are also used to weight the exit poll — that is, to ensure the exit poll properly reflects the demographic composition of the electorate as well as the election results.
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How does exit polling capture those voting early or by mail?
The exit poll supplements in-person Election Day interviews by contacting early voters through a telephone poll of people on voter lists, as well as by mail and online.
Are exit polls anonymous?
Yes. In person, voters are handed a piece of paper and a pencil to fill out a paper questionnaire, and they answer anonymously. When they are done, they put their folded questionnaire into a box, much like casting a ballot.
Interviews conducted by telephone do not retain any personal information about the voter who was interviewed.
How do we use exit polls?
The data gives viewers and readers a look into which issues are motivating voters, how they feel about the country and who they are. It’s the nation’s first look into what the electorate looks like and how voters are feeling about, the election, the candidates, and their choices.
What data gets reported and when?
No exit poll results are reported before 5 p.m. on Election Day, and no exit poll results that can be indicative of the outcome of a race get reported until after all the polls are closed in a state. As election night goes on and interviewers on the ground call in more exit poll results, the data is updated and re-weighed in real-time.
NBC News contributed to this report.
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