Traditional exit polling doesn’t work anymore. More Americans are voting early or by mail, leading pollsters to adapt the ways they collect information on the electorate.

That’s why for the last two major U.S. elections, AP has used VoteCast.

"VoteCast is our survey of the American electorate that asks them how and why they're voting." said Emily Swanson, AP's director of public opinion research. She adds it helps AP "understand in deeper ways some groups that usually we've only been able to scratch the surface on.”

AP will use this method again for the upcoming midterm election. Interviews are conducted in the week leading up to Election Day and are done by mail, telephone and online.

By comparing responses from previous elections, AP uses the data to explore voter trends and preferences over time. Swanson explains that knowing what issues matter most to voters allow pollsters “to understand how those (issues) have influenced this election.”