Begin Again: Election Campaign and Own Opinions Among First‐Time Voters in Romania.

POLITICAL campaigns; VOTING; POLITICAL knowledge; PRESIDENTIAL elections; VOTERS; ELECTION forecasting

Objective: This article analyzes under what circumstances first‐time voters are likely to be influenced by the election campaign or by their opinion prior to campaign in their vote choice. Methods: It uses individual‐level data from an original online survey conducted among Romanian first‐time voters in the November 2019 presidential election. Results: The results indicate that those who trust politicians, find the campaign informative and use social media are influenced by election campaign. Those with higher political knowledge and interest follow their precampaign attitudes in casting the vote. Conclusion: The study reveals the existence of distinct causal mechanisms for young voters who are influenced at the polls by the election campaign or by their own attitude prior to campaign. This indicates the necessity to include the existence of an opinion prior to campaign in future analytical frameworks about voting behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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