ABSTRACT
During the last several election cycles, a widespread sentiment shared by many voters might have been expressed as a question: “what were they thinking?” In this context, “they” refers to individuals who voted for the opposite candidate in the election. The sentiment and the question may have arisen most frequently among supporters of the losing candidates who were unable to understand the attraction of the victor, but many of the successful candidate’s supporters might well have posed the same question. In the aftermath of closely contested elections, many voters on both sides are unable to understand or even conceive the logic and motivation behind the opposite side’s voting choice.
