Recent Projects

Vote By Mail Text Message Chase

In October of 2020, we sent almost 25,000 text messages to Georgia voters who had requested but not yet returned their absentee ballot for the 2020 general election in order to see if chasing vote by mail materials with an informational text message reminder would increase ballot return rates (compared to 25,000 voters who didn’t get messaged). We hope to release the results in summer 2021.

PRIMARY ELECTION STUDIES

In 2020, we ran two postcarding studies during the primary election season with promising results. One explored the role of postmark location (read more here), and one explored the role of sending GOTV postcards before both the presidential and the general primaries (read more here). These results indicate that primaries and quieter election contexts may be a good time to reach voters with postcards. Further, downstream analysis of the two primaries postcards study indicates there is some suggestive evidence for primary postcards even increasing general election turnout (read more here).

Mobilize + Personal Text for Event Reminders

In the spring of 2021, we ran a pilot study to determine if an additional personal text message reminder to RSVPs to an event (in addition to the automated text message reminder sent by Mobilize) would increase event attendance. We found no significant difference between people who received the additional text message and people who only received the Mobilize reminder. This indicates that an additional personal reminder text message is not necessary for (or effective at) increasing event attendance. Read more here.