The Antecedents to Political Candidate Choice

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to assess aspects that influence a person’s voting choices. The study looks at the extent to which people vote on particular issues. Aspects outside of knowledge of the issues are also addressed including political awareness, liberalism and conservatism, religious fundamentalism, ethnicity, gender, family and individual income, parental and individual support for a particular party, source of news, and religious affiliation. Results suggest that people do not vote in alignment with their chosen political candidate on particular issues, and that outside factors (ie. family, political party, and religious institution) better influence candidate choice.