GEOFF BENNETT: Well, on this Election Day, candidates and campaigns and all of us watching closely are interested in more than just how many people voted.

We want to know who turned out, what motivated them to vote, and which issues mattered most as they cast their ballots.

AMNA NAWAZ: Traditional exit polls are evolving, as the way people vote has changed.

Deema Zein takes a closer look at some of the data behind the election.

DEEMA ZEIN: To know exactly who showed up to the polls and why they voted for a particular candidate, you have to ask the voters.

This year, "News Hour" is getting some of that information from the voter poll.

It's a new collaboration between the Associated Press and other news outlets to survey voters directly by phone, Internet, and in person.

To explain how it works, I'm joined by David Scott, V.P.

of election services at the Associated Press.

David, thanks for joining us.

DAVID SCOTT, Vice President of Election Services, Associated Press: Glad to be here.

DEEMA ZEIN: So this is a new system this year, joining forces with broadcast networks after about a decade of developing and using your own system to measure the vote.

Why?

DAVID SCOTT: We wanted to reach voters where they are.

That's the most important thing.

So if you're conducting a survey as Americans are casting their ballot, you need to be in all of the places where they cast a ballot.

We needed to be able to interview voters who are casting their ballots in person on Election Day.

But, at the same time, most Americans vote in advance.

And so we look at the voter file and look at who's cast a ballot, and then we try to interview them either online, by mail, by phone.

Whatever way that they would like to interact with us once we see that they have cast a ballot, then we're able to interview them, ask them questions about who they voted for and why.

DEEMA ZEIN: So people are familiar with this term exit poll.

This is different.

Can we talk a little bit about how exactly?

DAVID SCOTT: Well, part of it is an exit poll, right?

We are going to have thousands of people who are out in the 50 states interviewing people as they cast their ballot on Election Day.

But we also will interview people before Election Day, because people cast their ballots before Election Day.

Really, what we have tried to do with our colleagues at the broadcast networks is design a methodology that reaches Americans.

No matter how you cast your ballot, you have the opportunity for us to ask you questions, so we can understand the fullness of the American electorate.

DEEMA ZEIN: And how many people are you talking to as part of this new process?

DAVID SCOTT: Yes, it's an enormous survey.

So, like a normal political poll that you might see in a state about a Senate race might be based on 500 interviews.

We're going to aim for somewhere between 80,000 and 100,000 interviews taking place leading up to Election Day and then on Election Day itself.

So it's an enormous survey.

And it's one of the things that we think is really important, that we're going to have results in every state where there's a statewide election this year.

It's not just about the battlegrounds.

DEEMA ZEIN: What does this help tell you guys at the AP?

DAVID SCOTT: We're looking for insights in the data about who has voted, what they cared about, what issues were resonating.

We know which issues each candidate was talking about in a race, and so which ones were most important to voters.

We look at the demographics of a state and we look at the demographics of the electorate and see how that matches up.

One of the things that we saw in 2024 was some of those demographic shifts that pointed early in the night to success for President Trump.

You could see in the data about who was voting that he was poised to have a good night.

We were able to get a sense that this is where the election was going, and so those are the types of things that we will be looking at.

DEEMA ZEIN: David Scott, vice president of election services at the Associated Press, thanks again for joining us.

DAVID SCOTT: Happy to be here.