Why did people vote as they did? Ashcroft's post-vote poll

[muriel_volestrangler]

I have polled more than 12,000 voters who voted in the general election. I wanted to know when people decided, what factors had most influenced their vote, what issues were most important to the country and their families, how they see the economy and the future of austerity, and how the parties’ voters had voted in previous elections. The results are here:

Download a summary of the results
Download the full data tables

http://lordashcroftpolls.com/2015/05/why-did-people-vote-as-they-did-my-post-vote-poll/

The main 'why' question:

Tory voters were more interested in a 'competent' PM and cabinet, relatively uninterested in promises, and very uninterested in 'the best candidate locally' (well, most Tory candidates are pretty appalling ...). Labour had a lot of 'I've always voted Labour' supporters, and had less voting for a competent leadership. SNP, UKIP and Green voters went for motives, and promises (though many UKIP voters thought they were voting because Farage would make a good PM - a fantasy for them), and Lib Dem voters mainly went for 'best candidate locally' (though they were also doing it as a tactical vote to keep someone else out; that didn't work out well, did it?).

The detailed poll also has comparison of party voters by age, region, socio-economic class, religion (though only 'Christian' v. 'no religion' has enough replies for a meaningful percentage), and a few other characteristics.