Can people explain their own vote? Introspective questions as indicators of salience in the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty

Most scholars doubt that voters are able to explain their own vote. We argu e that introspective questions whereby respondents are invited to tell, in their own words, the reasons why they vote the way they do, provide useful information on which considerations are most salient in their voting decisi ons. We show that open-ended questions about reasons for voting Yes or No i n the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty help us to sort out subgroups o f voters for whom a given consideration is more salient.