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Phone-Based GOTV—What’s on the Line? Field Experiments with Varied Partisan Components, 2002-2003

State University of New York at Binghamton

Most of the recent literature that investigates voter turnout and mobilization finds little or no impact on turnout as a result of get-out-the-vote (GOTV) phone drives. This article describes four field experiments embedded within GOTV phone drives conducted in the San Francisco Bay Area in November 2002 and October 2003. One of the drives was strictly nonpartisan, two were explicitly partisan (Democratic), and the last was quasi-partisan in that it was explicitly in opposition to a municipal proposition. These experiments were designed to investigate whether GOTV phone drives are effective tools for increasing turnout. None of the GOTV phone drives with a partisan or quasi-partisan component resulted in a detectable increase in voter turnout. The overall results raise serious questions about the efficacy of GOTV phone drives, particularly those with the intent of affecting electoral outcomes.

Key Words: voting • turnout • GOTV • mobilization • partisan • experimental design • random assignment

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 601, No. 1, 41-65 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0002716205278176


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