Look at these New York Times graphs. It really is a tale of two nations:
The Election Day polls were based on questionnaires completed by voters as they left voting stations on Tuesday throughout the country and in four states analyzed by The Times.
The polls were conducted by Edison Research of Somerville, N.J. for the National Election Pool, a consortium of ABC News, Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News.
The national results are based on voters in 281 randomly chosen precincts across the United States. This also includes 2,800 absentee voters and early voters interviewed by telephone.
The state results are based on voters in 35 to 40 randomly selected precincts within each state, surveyed as they left voting stations. These include 500 to 600 interviews in each state conducted by telephone with absentee voters and early voters. In Colorado all 1,050 interviews were by telephone because voting there is by mail.
