Due to inherent difficulties of minority surveys, our understanding of indigenous election politics largely depends on qualitative studies. However, such studies usually lead to contradictory results because of different cases or interviewees. It is hard to develop a general explanation. This paper, as the very first one to study the relationship between party image and indigenous voting choice by implementing a quantitative method in Taiwan, can improve our understanding of indigenous voting behavior and lay a foundation for future relevant studies.

The research results indicate that indigenous voting choice is influenced by party image. Party image affects voting choice significantly. Even under the condition of controlling party identification, the influence of party image on voting choice is still significant. In other words, party image is differs from party identification conceptually but both affect voting choice. This study found that when the direction of party image is the same as party identification, voting choice tends to be consistent with party image and party identification. However, for political neutrals, due to the fact that the DPP’s party image is “making progress, changing the status quo, and offering more opportunities to young people,” which is more attractive than the KMT’s party “conservative” image, they tend to vote DPP.