National Election Pool

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The National Election Pool (NEP), later The Voter Poll by SSRS , [1] is a consortium of American news organizations formed in 2003 to provide exit polling information for US elections, replacing the Voter News Service following the latter's disbandment the same year. [2]

Contents

The system produced skewed results in the 2004 US presidential election [2] [3] and in the 2016 presidential election. [4]

Member companies ABC News, CBS News, CNN, and NBC News are in a contract with Edison Research to conduct exit polling and a quick turnaround of nationwide vote tabulation. [5] [6] Starting in 2020, Reuters has used the NEP for U.S. presidential election results and exit polls. [7] Fox News and the Associated Press were part of the Pool, but left in 2017 due to plans to conduct their exit polls and other experimental alternatives to gauge voter sentiment. [4] These two networks used AP VoteCast from 2018 to 2024. [8] In 2025, after SSRS acquired Edison Research, the AP and Fox News rejoined the consortium to survey voters for that year's off-year elections. [9] [10]

The organizers of the pool say that the purpose of their quick collection of exit poll data is not to determine if an election is flawed, but rather to project winners of races. Despite past problems, they note that all of their members have correctly called a winner since the current system was put in place. [11] However, to avoid the premature leaking of data, collection is now done in a "Quarantine Room" at an undisclosed location in New York. All participants are stripped of outside communication devices until it is time for information to be released officially. [12] [13]

Before the 2020 presidential election, exit polls were primarily conducted using in-person interviews with voters who cast their ballot on Election Day. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, exit pollsters in 2020 wore masks and were told to remain at least six feet away from participating voters. For the 2020 election, pollsters also interviewed respondents at early voting locations and included telephone polling as part of their methodology. [14] [15] For the 2022 midterm elections, exit pollsters continued to interview voters as they left voting locations on Election Day and places where early voting took place. Telephone interviews were also used. [16] The methodology was mostly the same for the 2024 election, but voters were also reached through email and text. [17] The Voter Poll by SSRS, established in 2025 for that year's off-year elections, was conducted using online and telephone interviews to reach voters, along with in-person interviews at 30 precincts. [18] [19]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Voter Poll by SSRS" . Retrieved January 16, 2026.
  2. 1 2 Rutenberg, Jim (5 November 2004). "Report Says Problems Led to Skewed Surveying Data". The New York Times.
  3. ↑ Rutenberg, Jim (3 November 2004). "An Early Night for Viewers Becomes a Cliffhanger". The New York Times.
  4. 1 2 Shepard, Steven (9 December 2017). "Is this the beginning of the end of the exit poll?". Politico.
  5. ↑ "U.S. Elections". Edison Research. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  6. ↑ "How election votes and data for 2022 are collected at NBC news". www.nbcnews.com. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  7. ↑ "Reuters to distribute real-time 2020 U.S. presidential election results and exit polls from the National Election Pool in groundbreaking collaboration". Reuters. 2019-07-22. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  8. ↑ "AP VoteCast - AP-NORC".
  9. ↑ "Introducing The Voter Poll by SSRS". SSRS. October 28, 2025. Retrieved January 16, 2026.
  10. ↑ Agiesta, Jennifer (November 3, 2025). "What to know about exit polls and how they've changed for this year's elections". CNN .
  11. ↑ "Election Polling Services". Edison Research. Archived from the original on 2022-09-14. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
  12. ↑ Sparks, Grace (2020-02-03). "What are exit polls and how do you read them? | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  13. ↑ Bump, Philip (2021-11-25). "How exit polls work, explained". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  14. ↑ Bowman, Karlyn; Goldstein, Samantha (January 2022). "The Exit Polls: A History and Trends Over Time, 1972-2020" (PDF). American Enterprise Institute . Retrieved January 20, 2026.
  15. ↑ Agiesta, Jennifer (November 2, 2020). "How the exit polls will work in a pandemic". CNN . Retrieved January 20, 2026.
  16. ↑ Kai Chen, Janice; Alcantara, Chris; Guskin, Emily (November 8, 2022). "How different groups voted according to exit polls and AP VoteCast". The Washington Post . Retrieved January 20, 2026.
  17. ↑ Merkle, Dan (November 4, 2024). "What you need to know about Election Day exit polls". ABC News . Retrieved January 20, 2026.
  18. ↑ Agiesta, Jennifer (November 3, 2025). "What to know about exit polls and how they've changed for this year's elections". CNN .
  19. ↑ "The Voter Poll by SSRS Methods Statement" (PDF). SSRS. November 4, 2025.


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