Do get-out-the-vote (GOTV) drives mobilize voters in all elections or just in high stakes elections?
Background Many campaigns use GOTV drives with face-to-face campaigning to increase turnout among people who consistently do not vote. To test whether or not face-to-face campaigning mobilizes nonvoters researchers only looked at citizens who typically do not vote when analyzing 11 field experiments. Results
Link to Study Do members of the same household share similar voting behaviors because of their influence on each other?
Background There have been studies showing that members of the same household share similar voting behaviors on average. Researchers performed a face-to-face canvassing experiment in various cities. They visited households with two registered voters. Residents who answered the door received either a Get Out the Vote message or a recycled pitch. Then they looked at whether or not the person in each household who did not answer the door went to vote. Results
Link to Study Do voter registration drives get more people to vote and if they do, what type of person do they encourage to vote?
Background It is difficult to measure how much voter registration drives actually increase voter turnout. The field experiment focused on city streets in six cities. Streets in the cities were randomly assigned to receive visits from canvassers trying to register voters. Researchers categorized the streets based on prior voter turnout. Results
Link to Study Can contact with a campaign increase voter turnout?
Background There are a lot of studies on campaigns but there haven’t been many conclusions on how effective campaign efforts are in politics. In 2006, in California’s 44th District, there was a local State Assembly seat open. Democratic activists wanted to get voters to the polls. They used a variety of methods to contact citizens: phone, email, door hanger, face-to-face contact, and other forms of contact. Using this natural experiment political scientists determined the effect of campaign contact on voter turnout. Results
Link to Study Can state officials increase local officials’ compliance with federal laws using subtle messages or hints?
Background There are federal laws requiring voter registration to be available at certain government agencies, but many counties do not follow these laws. The experiment involved two states. In one state the timing of the training of local government employees was randomly changed. In the other state the content of e-mails sent by the election office to certain agencies was randomly changed. Results
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