Elections are ultimately about the choices that citizens make in a democracy.Describe the three factors that influence voters' decisions.In your answer,be sure to provide examples from recent elections of the role that each of these three factors played in determining how people voted.

There are four components to this question.
a.Factors that influence voters' decisions: Three factors influence voters' decisions at the polls: partisan loyalty,issues and policy preferences,and candidate characteristics.
b.Partisan loyalty: Partisan identification predisposes voters in favor of their party's candidates and against those of the opposing party.In 2016 about 90 percent of Democrats and Republicans supported their party's presidential candidate.
c.Issues and policy preferences: Issues and policy preferences are a second factor influencing voters' choices at the polls.If candidates actually do "take issue" with one another (that is,articulate and publicize very different positions on important public questions),voters are more likely to be able to identify and act on whatever policy preferences they may have.Voters' issue choices usually involve a mix of their judgments about the past behavior of competing parties and candidates and their hopes and fears about candidates' future behavior.Political scientists call choices that focus on future behavior prospective voting,whereas those based on past performance are called retrospective voting.Retrospective economic voting,in which voters evaluate candidates on the strength of the economy,has been found to be more important than prospective voting.In 2016,for example,Donald Trump made curbing immigration and building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border a key issue of the presidential campaign.Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton,on the other hand,supported comprehensive immigration reform,including an easier path to full and equal citizenship and ending family detention.
d.Candidate characteristics: Candidates' personal attributes always influence voters' decisions.The more important candidate characteristics that affect voters' choices are race,ethnicity,religion,gender,geography,and social background.In general,voters may be proud to see someone of their ethnic,religious,or geographic background in a position of leadership,and they may presume that such candidates are likely to have views and perspectives close to their own.Just as candidates' personal characteristics may attract some voters,they may repel others.Many voters are prejudiced against candidates of certain ethnic,racial,or religious groups.Voters also pay attention to candidates' personality characteristics,such as "decisiveness," "honesty," and "vigor." In recent years integrity has become a key election issue.In the 2016 presidential election,many Americans questioned the trustworthiness of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.Nonetheless,Trump supporters saw their candidate as unafraid to speak his mind.Clinton supporters,on the other hand,admired her ambition,toughness,and discipline.