COMMENT | The dust is starting to settle from the campaign, although there remains considerable political stomping over the outcome and continued politicking after the election. The question always remains whether politicians and parties will take the right lessons and listen to voters.

From the perspective of those working to understand voting and electoral outcomes, this is also a time for reflection on lessons and listening. This piece discusses field observations from studying and predicting elections.

There is a tendency to see the vote and results as a product of a few explanations, such as the over-interpreted “Green Wave” for example, with most analysts falling into the mode of the politicians to focus on race and religion, or a simple phrase such as “it is the economy stupid”.

While these factors certainly are important...