Your guide to exit polls: What to watch for as voting stops and the results start to come in

Millions of voters are headed to the polls on Tuesday to cast their ballots in the 2024 presidential election and a series of races down ballot. But it could take some time to count those results.

What could give anxious Americans across the country some sense of where the country is headed is the exit polling which comes out as the results are coming in on Election Day.

The exit poll is the only survey conducted entirely of voters who have already cast their ballots in the election.

It gives voters and news organizations a better sense of what is happening on the ground with voters on Election Day and in early voting as the results come in. 

The polling is conducted by Edison Research, which has been the only research firm to conduct national exit polling in the United States since 2004. It also does exit polling for midterms and presidential primaries. 

The 2024 polling incudes voting locations around the country on Election Day as well as in-person exit polling at early voting locations and a mix of phone and web surveys of voters who cast their ballots by mail to get a full picture as people use multiple options for casting their ballots.

The data is provided to the National Election Pool, which as a group of media networks including ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC. The group pulls together resources for one total vote count and exit poll operation. 

Those in the pool do not report on any exit polling results before 5pm ET on Election Day. As election night goes on, interviewers on the ground continue to call in more exit poll results with the data being updated in real time. 

Exit polling is considered an important tool because it gives Americans, political analysts, researchers and even campaigns a wide range of information to analyze political trends and what different groups of voters are thinking about as they voted.

'It helps shape how people view the election, and how people understand the opinions of the American electorate,' said Rob Farbman from Edison Research.

Without the exit polling, the only real information available would be the final vote count. 

But once the poll start to close, experts can look exit polling data and voting data and start to do analysis of what it all means. 

 The exit polling asks a variety of questions including which candidate they voted for in the presidential race as well as other down-ballot races. 

But it also asks a series of other questions including what is the most important issue for a person's vote. 

It is what allows the news anchors and political pundits seated around a table discussing an election the confidence to say voters were focused on the economy, immigration or abortion rights when they cast their ballots as well as announce projected results.

 It also asks a series of demographic questions including age, gender race and education which helps political analysts understand trends including as examples, how women versus men voted, whether young people showed up, whether seniors leaned Republican or if Trump was able to pick up support from more voters of color, etc.

The demographic data is also used to help make sure that the exit polling as a whole reflects the electorate that showed up. 

Strong turnout among women, black voters and young people could be a good early sign for Harris. Strong turnout among white men and non-college educated voters could be a good sign for Trump. 

In addition to the national exit polling, members of the National Election Pool also decide which states exit polls will be conducted in and determine what questions voters are asked.

The questionnaires take roughly five minutes for voters to complete. 

The national exit polling will be taking from roughly 20,000 interviews, according to NBC News' exit polling manager Stephanie Perry. The sample size for each state exit poll is roughly 1,500 to 2,500 respondents.