By Jennifer Agiesta, Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN (CNN) — CNN’s Election Night coverage has for decades featured the results of surveys, known as exit polls that aim to explain how and why voters made their decisions. This year, those surveys are changing and they have a new name.
On Election Day, candidates, campaigns and analysts are looking for more than the total number of voters. They also want to know who showed up to the polls and what issues were on their minds. Traditional exit polls are evolving as the way people vote has changed.
NBC exit polls showed 2026 voters preferred Democrats on every issue aside from immigration, with affordability and economics playing a pivotal role. As Republicans scramble to comprehend the reasons for, and scale of, their loss on Tuesday, exit polls provide the first hints of what went wrong.
The first exit poll was conducted in a gubernatorial contest in 1968. Since that time, exit polls have been important to understanding the messages voters send in elections. The traditional exit polls, where voters are interviewed leaving their polling places, aren’t as big a feature in assessing vo…
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National exit poll has ominous midterm news for Trump, GOP as polls begin to close | Since Then
