FedSmith.com users said in our latest survey on the presidential election that fear of the other candidate winning is the primary motivation for them to vote for a particular candidate in the 2016 election.
When asked about the biggest motivation for casting their vote, 76% of respondents said that fear of the other candidate winning was more motivating. 24% said enthusiasm for their candidate to win was more inspiring to them.
Most respondents said that the presidential debates did not sway their decision as to whom to vote for. 51% said the debates did not influence their vote while 38% said it did and another 11% did not vote.
As we reported last week, the overall results from our survey showed that most respondents plan to vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming election. 55% of respondents indicated they would vote for Trump while 37% planned to vote for Clinton.
Issues of importance
What current issues were most important to FedSmith.com users? National security, the economy, and Supreme Court nominees topped the list of issues.
Here is a list of the current issues we asked you about, ranked in order of issues identified as either very or extremely important:
| Economy/Jobs | 94% |
| National security/terrorism | 92% |
| Foreign policy | 89% |
| Supreme Court/federal courts/nominees | 88% |
| Political corruption/leadership | 84% |
| Health care | 81% |
| Government spending/federal deficit | 80% |
| Immigration | 77% |
| Taxes | 77% |
| Social Security/Medicare | 73% |
| Education | 64% |
| Federal employee pay and benefits | 63% |
| Gun violence/gun control | 56% |
| Race relations | 55% |
| Abortion | 49% |
| Environment/climate change | 45% |
| Social welfare programs | 45% |
| Income inequality | 37% |
Respondent demographics
The majority of respondents identified themselves as independents. Here is how respondents’ stated political affiliations came out in the survey results:
| Independent | 37% |
| Republican | 34% |
| Democrat | 27% |
| Libertarian | 2% |
| Green | < 1% |
Survey respondents identified themselves almost exclusively as current and former federal employees. 66% were current federal employees while 31% were retired from federal service.
How they voted
So how does each group intend to vote? Here is a breakdown of how each group said they plan to vote in the election.
| Independents | |
| Donald Trump | 60% |
| Hillary Clinton | 27% |
| Gary Johnson | 5% |
| Jill Stein | 2% |
| Democrats | |
| Donald Trump | 8% |
| Hillary Clinton | 89% |
| Gary Johnson | 1% |
| Jill Stein | < 1% |
| Republicans | |
| Donald Trump | 87% |
| Hillary Clinton | 7% |
| Gary Johnson | 3% |
| Jill Stein | < 1% |
Also of note, 78% of independents said that fear of the other candidate winning was their bigger motivation whereas 67% of Democrats and 80% of Republicans said of the same question.
Our thanks to all of our users who took the time to share their feedback in our latest survey.
