In the literature on personalisation of electoral politics, the emphasis is on political leaders. In the Netherlands, however, the percentage of votes for party leaders has steadily declined whereas the percentage of votes for candidates lower on the party list (preference votes) have increased. The electoral system has been changed twice to give more impact to preference votes and a Citizen Forum has proposed a further reform in that direction. This paper studies the link between these changes and the increase in preference voting, and probes into the meaning of a personal vote by analysing who casts a personal vote, why preference votes are cast, and who receives preference votes. The study uses counterfactual thought experiments in the Dutch national election studies (See Van Holsteyn & Andeweg, Electoral Studies, 2010) and the actual election results.
