This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Ha, S. E. Articles by Karlan, D. S. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Get-Out-The-Vote Phone Calls

Does Quality Matter?

Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, shang.ha{at}yale.edu

Dean S. Karlan

Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

This article reports the results of a field experiment testing the effectiveness of different quality get-out-the-vote (GOTV) nonpartisan phone calls. During the week preceding the November 2004 election, we randomly assigned registered voters in North Carolina and Missouri to one of three live phone calls with varying length and content. The scripts are (1) standard GOTV, (2) interactive GOTV, and (3) interactive GOTV with a request for mobilizing neighbors. We find that people assigned to the interactive GOTV treatment are more likely to turn out, whereas the effect of the "get your neighbors to vote" script is relatively as weak as that of the standard script. The findings suggest that interactive calls generally tend to increase voter turnout, but for a phone call to be effective, the message needs to be focused. The borderline statistical significance of the script that encourages neighbors' participation invites replication of this experiment.

Key Words: field experiments • political behavior • turnout • voting • get-out-the-vote (GOTV) • phone banks

American Politics Research, Vol. 37, No. 2, 353-369 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1532673X08329444


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?