在台灣的選舉研究中，候選人因素向來被視為解釋選民投票行為的重要因素之一，但多數的研究對於選民如何去認知候選人的各種屬性，則較缺乏有系統的研究，本研究雖然也是以候選人因素為焦點，但主要的目的在於瞭解民眾心目中的候選人因素的各項內涵。藉由開放式問卷的調查方式，瞭解民眾心目中理想總統候選人所具備的內涵，以及這些理想候選人的內涵與民眾投票對象之間的關聯性。研究結果指出，多數民眾心目中理想候選人的內涵主要集中兩方面：與政治有關的個人屬性，如候選人能力、經驗、領導才能、與政治風格等；以及與政治無關的個人屬性，如品德、個性與個人背景等，至於與政黨或是政策議題相關的屬性則屬少數。但即使民眾具有這些理想候選人的條件，本研究也發現在實際的選舉投票中，民眾的投票支持候選人所具有的條件，也與民眾所認知的理想候選人的條件有相當的距離，顯示出民眾對候選人特性認知與實際支持程度上的不一致。

Candidate has been seen one of the most important factor explaining voter’s behavior in Taiwan. However, systematic study of voter’s perception of candidate is comparatively rare. This article first tries to delineate the attributes of an ideal candidate from voter’s perspective. Then it explores the relationship between the attributes of an ideal president and the attributes of candidate that voter actually votes for. By way of open-ended questionnaires, it classifies five categories of attributes for an ideal president; they are politics-relevant personal attributes, politics-irrelevant personal attributes, party-relevant attributes, policy-relevant attributes, and other attributes. Among these categories, those politics-relevant personal attributes, such as competence, experience, leadership, and style, and those politics-irrelevant personal attributes, such as character, personality, and background, constitute the most components of an ideal president. On the other hand, those party-relevant attributes and policy-relevant attributes are less prominent. Lastly, this article also indicates that even voter can picture the attributes of an ideal president, there exists a difference between these ideal attributes and the real attributes of presidential candidate that voter votes for. This result also suggests that voter’s perception of candidate attributes and voting behavior are not always consistent.