The short answer seems to be ‘not much’, although much lip service is given to it. During election season, voters will often say that what they are concerned about are major issues like the economy, inflation, immigration, and so on. Reporters will often ask them about these things and it makes both reporters and voters look like serious people who are not swayed by superficial matters. But the replies elicited are often generic and do not suggest that the voters are looking for specific proposals in order to make up their minds. They seem to be looking for candidates who view as important the same things as they do.
I am becoming convinced that issues are not that important in people deciding how they vote, while acknowledging that the word ‘issues’ covers a lot of ground. My suspicion is that people decide who to vote for based on a whole host of intangible feelings or general perceptions, like which party or candidate seems like they would do things that the voter would generally agree with, especially on emotionally charged issues, which party they have generally voted for in the past, which candidate they like/dislike/fear more, and so on. At this stage, the genuinely undecided voter is a rarity and is usually a low-information voter who may well not vote at all or vote more or less based on a last-minute impulse.
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