Why No Exit Polls?

Since the debate about the meaning of this election will be intense, one has to lament the absence of any data that can help us understand what was going through people's minds as they voted. Is this a vote against Obama in a state that still gives him high approval ratings? Is it a protest vote against the continuing recession? Is it about the health reform bill? Or about the bank bailouts? Is it about Coakley's awful campaign and Brown's clever one? We will debate all of this and more - but without exit polls, we will do so with little but subjective judgment.

Not that that has ever stopped me.