Brewer speaks with WVII about what influences voters

WVII (Channel 7) interviewed Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, for a segment about the factors that sway voters. “Theories of voting behaviors is one of the most researched questions of political science,” Brewer said. “It is also one of the most difficult to answer.” He cited studies conducted at Columbia University that put voting choices into categories, including that voters are partisan and are heavily influenced by their parents views, that it’s all about the candidates and their platforms, or that voters look at their past or future choices. “People act politically as they are socially,” Brewer said. “If you are of working class background in the South, you are going to vote a certain way. If you’re a female of a certain age, you’re going to vote a certain way.”