# SSRS **SSRS** is a Glen Mills, Pennsylvania survey research firm that, since 2025, runs the American network exit poll under the name **The Voter Poll by SSRS**. It is also [[CNN]]'s polling partner. Melissa Herrmann is its president. ## Origins and ownership SSRS grew out of **International Communications Research (ICR)**, founded in Media, Pennsylvania in **1983**. An SSRS division was set up in 2007, and the companies merged under the SSRS name in 2014. Its parent company is AUS Marketing Research Systems. It has grown by acquisition: - CENTRIS (2014) - STR (2014–15) - Luker on Trends (2019) - [[Edison Research]] (2025) ## The Edison deal and The Voter Poll On **October 15, 2025** SSRS announced it had acquired Edison Research, the [[National Election Pool]]'s exit pollster since 2003. Terms were not disclosed. The product that came out of the deal was **The Voter Poll**, first fielded in the November 2025 off-year elections. It combines three things that used to compete: - the networks' traditional exit poll; - [[AP VoteCast]], the AP's survey of registered voters; - the Fox News Voter Analysis, Fox's version of VoteCast. ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, Fox and the [[Associated Press]] are all partners. (The vault earlier said AP and Fox "rejoined the consortium." Only Wikipedia puts it that way; "joined the networks as partners in the Voter Poll" is the safer description.) The method is mixed: online and telephone interviewing, with a limited in-person component, rather than the old precinct-door interviews. ## Why it matters The 2026 midterms are the first federal election in which the networks share **one survey** (SSRS) and **one vote count** (AP). The 2017 split, when AP and Fox left the pool to build VoteCast, gave election night two competing pictures of who voted and why. That is over. One shared survey removes a cross-check. It also gives anyone who disputes the result a single target. Because the exit poll was the raw material for "the exit polls showed something different" arguments, from the [[2004 Presidential Election]] onward, the vault tracks its methodology and its owner (see [[Exit Poll]] and [[Election Conspiracy Theories]]). ## Other work SSRS runs CNN's polls through its probability-based **SSRS Opinion Panel**. How long it has been CNN's partner is not confirmed here. ## See Also - [[Edison Research]] · [[National Election Pool]] · [[Exit Poll]] · [[AP VoteCast]] - [[How Election Results Are Transmitted and Reported]] - [[CNN]] · [[Fox News]] · [[Associated Press]]