How is it that the news stations were able to call the results of the elections before 7PM? They close at 7. How do they know the results before they are reported? Are they basing their results solely on prior polls?

I think that a law should be passed that would make it illegal to report the results of an election before 95% of the precincts have reported. I get tired of hearing the election results getting called before the polls have even closed. This is especially true for Presidential elections. In the 2008 Election, the results were pretty much finalized by the media before all the states had their votes in.