Definition

Surveys of voters immediately after they've cast ballots, offering the media a chance to predict results before they're official and occasionally be spectacularly wrong. It's democracy's spoiler alert, assuming people tell strangers the truth about their votes.

Example Usage

The exit polls showed a tight race, but the actual results revealed a landslide, reminding everyone that polling is educated guessing with a margin of error.

Origin

Developed in the 1960s by American pollsters seeking to understand voting behavior and predict results early

Fun Fact

Networks agreed to embargo exit poll results until polls close after the 1980 election was called while West Coast voters were still in line.

Source: Electoral polling terminology

Related Terms

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A strategic information leak where you confess to something juicy but relatively minor to distract people from the full scandal. Think of it as throwing investigators a bone so they stop digging for the entire skeleton. Popularized during Watergate, this tactic is the political equivalent of admitting you ate one cookie when you actually demolished the whole jar.

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incumbents

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