by Donald P. Green

September 2004

“A field experiment was conducted in order to gauge the effects of Election Day voter mobilization efforts directed at registered voters 18-25 years of age. Prior to New Jersey’s November 2003 state legislative elections, volunteers contacted 2,817 registered voters through a combination of phone calls and doorto- door canvassing. This list of contacted individuals was randomly assigned to receive an Election Day phone call encouraging them to vote or to receive no further contact from the campaign. After the election, voter turnout records were examined in order to assess whether the Election Day campaign increased voter turnout. Election Day calls generated a statistically significant increase in turnout. This increase was confined almost exclusively to those who, prior to Election Day, expressed an intention to vote.”

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2004 at 9:52 am and is filed under Working Papers, Youth Voting/Political Participation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.