Nobody knows how people voted and why.
Polls are for fools.
Exit polls are for morons.
There's a not insignificant number of voters out there, low-info voters, who care little about politics, don't follow politics, don't participate in political discussion on-line. They care little about the issues or where a candidate stands on them.
They vote only because they believe it's their civic duty to do so, and when they vote they choose their candidate for the flimsiest, most superficial reasons. Maybe it's the guy they'd like to have a beer with? Maybe it's for the lady who reminds them of their grandma?
Who knows?
But their votes count just the same as yours and mine do.
I’ve been interviewed by exit pollsters twice in 40 years of voting. Lied my butt of to them both times.