What to know about exit polls and how they’ve changed for this year’s elections

For decades, Americans have relied on exit polls to illuminate the story of what happened on election night . By gathering opinions from voters largely after they’ve cast their ballots, exit polls fill in the details that our secret-ballot elections otherwise leave impossible to know.

This year, for the first time since 2016, CNN, ABC, CBS, Fox News, NBC and the Associated Press are working together to produce this critical research, in collaboration with SSRS , a nonpartisan research company. On behalf of the six media organizations, SSRS will conduct The Voter Poll in California, New Jersey, New York City and Virginia to cover the marquee contests on this November’s slate.

Traditionally, exit polling has leaned heavily on in-person interviews of a randomly selected sample of voters