Surveying Voters on Election Day: Methodological Issues in Exit Polling

Exit polls play an important role in the media’s coverage of elections by providing us with accurate and timely data that help us to report on the two main stories of any election: Who won, and what does it mean? This presentation will start with a brief history of exit polling and an overview of how exit polls are used on election night. Then it will discuss methodological issues in exit polling including sampling, questionnaire design, noncoverage, nonresponse, and weighting. It concludes by discussing COVID-19 and implications for exit polling in 2020. This presentation was given by Dan Merkle from ABC News on July 16, 2020, as part of the ICPSR Summer Program Blalock Lecture Series.