Anyone who has watched Election Day coverage in the past, or been excited about it during the hotly contested 2024 election, has probably heard anchors or analysts refer to exit polls. But what are they and how do they work?

Exit polls are surveys conducted when voters leave their polling place on Election Day. Reaching voters at that moment ensures that those surveyed have actually voted. Critical questions about who won and why are answered based on the results of the exit polls. Exit polls tell what issues were important in the election and how key demographic groups voted.

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How are exit polls conducted?

Interviewers stand outside polling stations at randomly selected constituencies around the country and approach voters at certain intervals as they leave, for example every fifth or ninth voter.

Voters who agree to participate complete a short, confidential questionnaire and place it in a ballot box.

Interviewers call in the results three times a day. When a voter declines to participate, interviewers record that voter’s gender, approximate age and race. This information is used to statistically adjust the exit poll to ensure that all voters are fairly represented in the final results.

What types of questions are asked in an exit poll?

The exit poll questionnaire asks who people voted for, what their demographics are, their opinions on the candidates, and their views on important issues. Here’s an example of a previous exit poll question from 2022:

Do you think the state of the country’s economy is: 1. Excellent 2. Good 3. Not so good 4. Poor

Are exit polls accurate?

Exit polls, like any other survey, are subject to sampling and non-sampling error. Before news organizations report exit poll results or make projections, they compare the results to pre-election polls and voting history in that district, and have statisticians and political experts carefully review the data.

After the polls close, the exit poll results are weighted against the actual vote to make the data more accurate. Exit polls can be used to project the winners of races where the margin between candidates is large. But most election forecasts are made after the polls close, based on actual voting data.

How do exit polls take into account the people who vote early or by mail?

In the 2020 presidential election, about 70 percent of voters voted through some form of mail-in or early in-person voting before Election Day. By 2024, that number is expected to reach about 60 percent.

Exit polls miss those who vote before Election Day. However, it is important to include them in the data to have accurate information about all voters.

Exit polls include those who vote absentee or early in two ways. The first is by conducting multi-mode polls (i.e. by phone, text, and email) among those who voted absentee or early. Second, in states with a large share of early in-person voters, exit polls are conducted in the weeks leading up to Election Day, as these voters leave early voting polling places. Data from the multi-mode polls and early voter exit polls are combined with the Election Day exit poll to provide a complete picture of all voters, regardless of when they voted.

When will the exit poll results be announced?

On Election Day, there will be a strict embargo on all data from the first waves of exit poll data until 5:00 PM ET. Some initial demographic information about voters and their views on key issues in the election will be available on ABCNews.com around 5:45 PM ET. After polls close in a given state, the full exit poll crosstabs (which are tables of data showing how different subgroups voted) are posted on ABCNews.com.

ABC News will not announce a winner until the last scheduled poll cutoff in each state. If no race is projected at poll closing time, the projection will include actual voting data and will be made as soon as the data warrants. Information will be updated continuously throughout the evening on ABCNews.com and across all ABC News programs.