Replying to Election Question

I know around 8:30 western time it was all over the news: OBAMA WON but I am pretty sure all of the electoral votes could not have been counted up and this was still a projection, and it wasn't for rock solid truth that he had won until later that night. can anyone shed light on this subject? all of the numbers were saying obama 293 mccain 143 or whatever but this was all projection if i have it correctly, and these numbers were relying on exit polling.
PS if you (you know who you are) read this, dont bitch.