Early exit polls: Good news for Trump?

Politico/Morning Consult have released their early exit polls, and they show some potentially positive signs for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. These polls do not contain top-line results but do provide some indication of what voters are looking for in their next president. The good news for Trump:

Asked what characteristic is most important for the next president, 36 percent of voters say they want a “strong leader,” 29 percent want “a vision for the future,” 16 percent want someone who “cares about people like me” and another 16 percent said they want someone who “shares my values.”

The percentage of voters thus far who say they want a strong leader — a characterization Donald Trump’s team made central to his campaign — is twice the percentage who said they were looking for a strong leader in the 2012 National Election Pool exit poll.

The exit polls also indicate that the American public is thoroughly disgusted by the election and ready for it to be over. Eighty-five percent of voters agreed that they were "just ready for the election to be over," while 72 percent of voters reported feeling "anxious" about the election, and 71 percent reported feeling "nervous."

The most upset voters are independents, who were more likely to report feeling "depressed," "angry" and "sad" about the election than either Republican or Democratic voters — and by relatively significant margins. Independent voters were also far less likely to report feeling "happy" or "proud" than their Republican and Democratic counterparts.

Media organizations will typically not release top-line exit poll results before polls are closed and in many states are prevented by law from doing so.