Exit Polls in 2026: What's Changed With the Voter Poll

The exit poll you heard about on past election nights is gone in its old form. For the Nov. 3, 2026, midterms, seven news outlets share one survey, The Voter Poll by SSRS. It replaces both the Edison Research exit poll and AP VoteCast, and it blends a large pre-election survey with in-person interviews at polling places in 15 states. As of 1:42 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 3, polls are still open and no Voter Poll data has been released. The outlets say the first numbers come after 5 p.m. ET, and no figures that show how voters chose in a race come out until that state’s polls close.

What is The Voter Poll, and what did it replace?

The Voter Poll by SSRS is a single election-night survey of voters that took the place of two rival surveys used from 2018 to 2024. One was the National Election Pool exit poll, which Edison Research ran for ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC. The other was AP VoteCast, which the AP-NORC Center ran for the Associated Press and Fox News (Fox called it Fox News Voter Analysis).

The change came in two steps in 2025:

• Oct. 15, 2025: SSRS, a survey research firm based outside Philadelphia, bought Edison Research, according to Radio Ink. Edison’s president, Larry Rosin, and executive vice president, Joe Lenski, joined SSRS’s leadership.
• Oct. 28, 2025: SSRS announced The Voter Poll. Its release says the survey merges the methods of the Edison exit poll and AP VoteCast, and trade outlet Daily Research News Online reported that Lenski, who led Edison’s exit poll for two decades, co-leads it.

Its first use was in the November 2025 races in California, New Jersey, New York City and Virginia. In CNN’s words, that was the first time since 2016 that CNN, ABC, CBS, Fox News, NBC and AP worked together on this research. The 2026 midterms are its first federal election. For more on what is on the ballot, see our 2026 midterm elections guide .

What changed compared with past exit polls?

The biggest changes are one shared pollster instead of two, and one survey that combines a pre-election poll of verified voters with in-person interviews at polling places. In the table below, the first column names the feature, the second describes the 2018-2024 setup with two rival surveys, and the third describes the 2026 Voter Poll.

A few points need more context than a table cell allows:

• The old exit poll was not purely in person by the end. Edison’s surveys for the pool were built around interviews outside polling places, then added early-vote sites, phone and other contact methods as more people voted early or by mail. In 2026, polling-place interviews happen in 15 states.
• VoteCast was never an exit poll in the traditional sense. AP described it as a survey of both voters and nonvoters, done by mail, phone and online.
• Whether the survey is bigger depends on the comparison. ABC says the national Voter Poll has a much larger sample than in previous years. AP, though, says VoteCast reached more than 130,000 registered voters, nonvoters included, in the 2020 presidential election, which is more than the roughly 75,000 (AP) to nearly 80,000 (CNN) in this year’s pre-election survey.
• The name depends on the outlet. In 2025, CNN still showed the results as “CNN’s Exit Poll.” In 2026 it calls the survey the “CNN Voter Poll,” AP calls it “The AP Voter Poll by SSRS,” ABC calls it the “Election Day Voter Poll,” and MS NOW calls it The Voter Poll. NBC still uses the headline “NBC News Exit Poll” and writes that exit polls are being conducted by SSRS. So “exit poll” has not disappeared everywhere.

Who runs the Voter Poll, and which networks use it?

SSRS conducts the survey for seven news organizations in 2026: ABC News, the Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, MS NOW and NBC News. That list matches across CNN, AP, NBC and MS NOW, and MS NOW is the addition compared with the six that used it in 2025.

According to MS NOW, the outlets together decide the sampling plan and the questions in each state, and SSRS collects and processes the data. NBC says the companies receive the same data and that NBC News then analyzes and reports it independently, so the way the results are presented can differ by outlet.

How does the Voter Poll find and interview voters?

It has two parts: a pre-election survey in all 50 states, and paper questionnaires handed to voters at sampled polling places in 15 states on Election Day. The outlets give slightly different figures, so each one is attributed below.

The pre-election survey

• Size and dates: CNN says nearly 80,000 voters took part between Oct. 19 and Nov. 3. AP says about 75,000, interviewed from Oct. 22 to Election Day, with Alaska starting Oct. 19.
• Recruitment: Some respondents are drawn at random from state voter files and invited by postcard or mail, phone, text or email. Others come from the probability-based SSRS Opinion Panel and from the Verasight panel, which AP notes includes people recruited through internet ads and other non-random methods.
• Matching: Everyone is matched back to the voter file, so the researchers know basic facts such as past turnout. AP says the Verasight interviews are carefully combined with the other samples so they do not over- or underrepresent important demographic and ideological groups.
• Recontacts: People who had not voted when first surveyed are contacted again to confirm they voted and how. ABC says these recontacts start at 5 p.m. local time the day before Election Day and run until polls close.

The Election Day interviews

• States: Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin (AP’s list).
• Size: CNN expects roughly 22,000 voters to be interviewed this way. AP says about 25,000. AP adds that interviews also took place at early-vote centers in Alaska in late October.
• How it works: The polling places are chosen at random, and interviewers approach voters at set intervals, for example every fifth voter (ABC, MS NOW). NBC says interviewers are at more than 450 polling locations, with at least 30 randomly sampled locations in each of the 15 states. The paper form has about 25 questions, and interviewers phone results in to a data center three times during the day.

Overall: CNN and MS NOW put the combined total at about 100,000 voters. NBC and MS NOW say the national sample alone is more than 75,000. CNN gives a margin of error of plus or minus 0.6 percentage points for the full national sample, larger for subgroups and individual states. The survey can be taken in English or Spanish.

Which states get their own Voter Poll results?

There are separate results for the 45 states with a Senate or governor race, plus a national survey that draws on all 50 states. AP says interviews in the five states without a statewide race (Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Utah and Washington) count toward the national figures but are not reported on their own.

State sample sizes vary. NBC lists about 4,000 voters in each of 16 states: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. Alaska has about 3,000. The other states with results have between 500 and 3,000. That 16-state list is not the same as the 15 in-person states: Arizona and California are on it but get no polling-place interviews, and Alaska gets in-person interviews but a smaller sample.

Does the Voter Poll only survey people who actually voted?

Yes. AP and MS NOW both describe it as a survey of verified voters. MS NOW says people interviewed in person are confirmed as voters at the polling place, while early and mail voters are matched to the voter files that state election offices keep. People who cannot vote, such as those under 18 or noncitizens, cannot take the survey.

That is a change from AP VoteCast, which AP described as a survey of both voters and nonvoters. NBC says the in-person forms go into a box, much like a ballot, and that the mail, phone and online interviews keep no personal information about the voter.

On what it asks: AP says the questionnaire covers demographics, views on the country’s leadership and direction, the candidates and issues such as the economy, immigration, crime, healthcare and foreign policy. Voters are asked about Senate and governor races where those are held. The national survey asks which party’s House candidate people voted for. California voters are also asked about Proposition 40, a proposed one-time tax on billionaires.

When will Voter Poll data come out tonight?

Not before 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 3, and as of 1:42 p.m. ET none has been released. ABC describes a strict embargo on the early waves until then. The outlets also say that anything showing how people voted in a race waits until that state’s polls close.

In the table below, the first column is the time (all ET), the second is what the outlets say comes out then, and the third names the outlet that set out the rule.

MS NOW gives a concrete example. Results on how different groups of Texans voted in the Senate race between James Talarico and Ken Paxton come at 9 p.m. ET, when polls have closed statewide in Texas. CNN’s poll-closing guide says polls in most of Texas close at 8 p.m. ET and the state’s western end closes at 9 p.m. ET. The first scheduled poll closings anywhere are at 6 p.m. ET. For the official count in that race, see our Texas election results page . For background on the candidates, see our page on the Paxton–Talarico Senate race .

Do networks call races from the Voter Poll?

Sometimes, in lopsided races, but ABC says most projections are made after polls close using actual vote data, and AP says it never calls a race on the Voter Poll alone. Here is how each outlet describes its own procedure:

• AP says races are not called on Voter Poll results alone. Its Decision Team also weighs election results, vote history, registration and turnout data, and demographics. AP says that where one party has a long record of lopsided wins and other data all point the same way, the Voter Poll can be the final data point that lets AP declare a winner as soon as polls close.
• ABC says the Voter Poll may be used to project races with a large margin, but most projections are made after polls close, using actual vote data. ABC will not project a winner before the last scheduled poll-closing time in each state.
• NBC says its Decision Desk uses some exit poll data to help project races, but uses the survey mainly to tell the story of the election.

The order in which early, mail and Election Day ballots are counted varies by state, so partial totals can change as more votes are reported. For the official count and AP calls as they happen, see our national results page .

Why do the Voter Poll numbers change during the night?

The figures are estimates that keep changing as more interviews arrive, and are reweighted to the actual vote once results come in. CNN says results change throughout the night as more interviews are added and later as the data is adjusted to match the election results. NBC says the data is updated and reweighted in real time as interviewers call in more results. ABC says that after polls close, Voter Poll results are weighted using the actual vote. MS NOW says each state’s data is eventually weighted to that state’s results, and that early numbers may differ slightly from the final ones.

ABC also says the survey is subject to sampling and nonsampling error. ABC adds that before reporting anything, the outlets run quality checks that compare the data with pre-election polls and each state’s voting history. In short, a Voter Poll figure at 7 p.m. is an early estimate of who voted and why, not a count of votes. AP says none of the survey’s information “is a replacement for the vote count.”

Will this page publish Voter Poll findings?

No. This page explains how the survey works and when outlets release it. It does not republish how groups voted or any candidate’s share of the vote. AP has said it will not report the topline figures, meaning the overall share of voters who say they backed a candidate or party. We go further and leave out subgroup vote choices too, because early survey estimates are easy to mistake for results.

After 5 p.m. ET, this page will be updated to note that the outlets have begun releasing data; it will still not reproduce vote-choice figures. The official count will stay on our results pages.

Sources

• SSRS: Introducing The Voter Poll by SSRS (Oct. 28, 2025, Internet Archive capture)
• ABC News: What you need to know about the Election Day Voter Poll (Nov. 2, 2026)
• NBC News: NBC News Exit Poll, how it works and how we use the results on election night (Nov. 3, 2026)
• MS NOW: How The Voter Poll, MS NOW’s election exit-polling project, works (Nov. 3, 2026)
• AP: What to know about The AP Voter Poll (Oct. 28, 2026, via News4JAX)
• CNN: Exit polls have become the CNN Voter Poll. Here’s what that means (Nov. 3, 2026, via KVIA)
• CNN: An hour-by-hour guide to election night poll closings (Nov. 2, 2026, via KVIA)
• CNN: What to know about exit polls and how they’ve changed for this year’s elections (Nov. 3, 2025, via KRDO)
• AP: How AP VoteCast works (2024, Internet Archive capture)
• Radio Ink: Edison Research acquired by political polling firm (Oct. 15, 2025)
• Daily Research News Online: SSRS debuts ‘Voter Poll’ election night survey (Oct. 31, 2025)
• Wikipedia: National Election Pool (background on earlier methods)