Reminder that mail-in and absentee votes are not included in the precinct total.

[clutterbox1830]

This is just a reminder for those who are watching tonight's results that mail-in and absentee ballots are not counted in the precinct total. So therefore you might see a state with ~100% of precincts reported for that particular state might not called for a candidate. This is probably due to a significant amount of mail-in and/or absentee ballots not tabulated. i.e. PA and AK

In addition, today's states exit polls are more meaningless this election cycle too due to the amount of early voting.

[euphorb]

1. Actually, exit polling this year is not limited to people voting in person today

In an interview last night, NBC's director of the decision desk says they have been doing exit polling this year at early voting sites and by phone with people who voted by mail.

[clutterbox1830]

2. good to know. Although it better to survey people immediately after they finish voting

[beachbumbob]

3. exit polls only indicate trends and to a point they are fine

neither PA or Ak matter one bit for what we are going to see by 8pm CST

[33taw]

4. This depends on the state.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Many states will be reporting those votes as soon as their polls close.

Hardly any state (I'm looking at you Pennsylvania) waits until today to start counting the early votes.

[MineralMan]

6. Depends on where you are.

In Minnesota, absentee ballots are bar-coded for the county, ward, and precinct. They'll be counted centrally, but reported by precinct. Why? Because there are tons of local elections on our ballots. Those have to be counted by precinct. So, everything will be.

[judeling]

7. Exactly, why some states are better suited for close election trends.

But that is at a granular level and more suited to CD and local elections. However for National and Statewide since the mid-level processing is at county level you can get a very good idea as they will all have the received absentee counts also.

I expect the national board watchers will have adjusted to that quite well and only look at precinct level data as an adjunct.

As an aside I heard on MPR that St Louis county expects to be finished by midnight. That is right inline with history as they are usually one of the late ones.