Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Traditional in-person voter registration drives increase voter registration rates in minority communities but became infeasible during the 2020 COVID-19 epidemic. An alternative approach is to promote registration through mass media, such as local radio. We present results from a large-scale experiment testing the effects of radio ads on voter registration. During the run up to the November 2020 election, we identified 186 radio stations with predominantly Latinx or African American audiences; 50 randomly selected stations were assigned to a week-long advertising campaign each week for 3 weeks. Nonpartisan messages encouraged voter registration by stressing the importance of the election and featured celebrity voices. The number of new registrants rose slightly in treated areas during the week when the ads aired. No further gains were apparent one or 2 weeks later.

Keywords

voting voter registration elections mass media

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Addonizio

E. M.

(2012). The fourth of july vote: A social approach to voter mobilization and election day (Doctoral dissertation). New Haven: Yale University.

Aronow

P. M.

Eckles

Samii

Zonszein

(2021). Spillover effects in experimental data. In Druckman

J. N.

Green

D. P.

(Eds.), Advances in experimental political science (pp. 289–319). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108777919.021.

Bedolla

L. G.

(2005). Fluid borders. Oakland: University of California Press.

Bedolla

L. G.

Michelson

M. R.

(2012). Mobilizing inclusion. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Bennion

E. A.

Nickerson

D. W.

(2011). The cost of convenience: An experiment showing e-mail outreach decreases voter registration. Political Research Quarterly, 64(4), 858–869.

Calfano

B. R.

Green

D. P.

(2019). Assessing the efficacy of radio public service announcements: Results from three field experiments. Electronic News, 13(3), 134–151.

De Rooij

E. A.

Green

D. P.

(2017). Radio public service announcements and voter participation among native americans: Evidence from two field experiments. Political Behavior, 39(2), 327–346.

Ferguson

Liu

Rosmarin

Tom

Woolfalk

(2017). Vote.org sms voter registration test results. www.vote.org/research.

Fraga

B. L.

(2018). The turnout gap: Race, ethnicity, and political inequality in a diversifying America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

10.

Gay

(2012). Moving to opportunity: The political effects of a housing mobility experiment. Urban Affairs Review, 48(2), 147–179.

11.

Gerber

A. S.

Gimpel

J. G.

Green

D. P.

Shaw

D. R.

(2011). How large and long-lasting are the persuasive effects of televised campaign ads? Results from a randomized field experiment. American Political Science Review, 105(1), 135–150.

12.

Green

D. P.

Schwam-Baird

(2016). Mobilization, participation, and american democracy: A retrospective and postscript. Party Politics, 22(2), 158–164.

13.

Green

D. P.

Vavreck

(2008). Analysis of cluster-randomized experiments: A comparison of alternative estimation approaches. Political Analysis, 16(2), 138–152.

14.

Hanmer

M. J.

(2009). Discount voting: Voter registration reforms and their effects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

15.

Hill

S. J.

Vavreck

Zaller

(2013). How quickly we forget: The duration of persuasion effects from mass communication. Political Communication, 30(4), 521–547.

16.

Holbein

J. B.

Hillygus

D. S.

(2020). Making young voters: Converting civic attitudes into civic action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

17.

Horvitz

D. G.

Thompson

D. J.

(1952). A generalization of sampling without replacement from a finite universe. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 47(260), 663–685.

18.

Krasno

J. S.

Green

D. P.

(2008). Do televised presidential ads increase voter turnout? evidence from a natural experiment. The Journal of Politics, 70(1), 245–261.

19.

Leighley

J. E.

Nagler

(2013). Who votes now? Princeton: Princeton University Press.

20.

Mann

C. B.

Bryant

L. A.

(2020). If you ask, they will come (to register and vote): Field experiments with state election agencies on encouraging voter registration. Electoral Studies, 63, 102021.

21.

McGhee

Romero

(2019). Registration effects of automatic voter registration in the United States [election sciences, reform and administration conference].

22.

Merivaki

(2021). How are americans registering to vote? Beyond the institutional supply. The administration of voter registration (pp. 77–103). Springer.

23.

Merivaki

Mann

(2019). Beyoncé—taylor swift effect? Impact of online voter registration on voting. Working Paper Presented at 2019 APSA Meeting.

24.

Merivaki

Suttmann-Lea

(2022). Can electoral management bodies expand the pool of registered voters? examining the effects of face-to-face, remote, traditional, and social media outreach. Policy Studies, 1–31.

25.

Michelson

M. R.

(2005). Meeting the challenge of latino voter mobilization. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 601(1), 85–101.

26.

Nelsen

M. D.

(2021). Cultivating youth engagement: Race & the behavioral effects of critical pedagogy. Political Behavior, 43(2), 751–784.

27.

Nickerson

D. W.

(2015). Do voter registration drives increase participation? For whom and when? The Journal of Politics, 77 (1), 88–101.

28.

Paluck

E. L.

Lagunes

Green

D. P.

Vavreck

Peer

Gomila

(2015). Does product placement change television viewers’ social behavior? PloS One, 10(9), e0138610.

29.

Panagopoulos

Green

D. P.

(2011). Spanish-language radio advertisements and latino voter turnout in the 2006 congressional elections: Field experimental evidence. Political Research Quarterly, 64(3), 588–599.

30.

Rosenstone

S. J.

Hansen

J. M.

(1993). Mobilization, participation, and democracy in America. New York: MacMillan.

31.

Scott

J. S.

Michelson

M. R.

DeMora

S. L.

(2022). Getting out the black vote in Washington dc: A field experiment. In The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election eds. Daniel E. Bergan and Bruce I. Newman. London: Routledge.

32.

Sinclair

McConnell

Michelson

M. R.

(2013). Local canvassing: The efficacy of grassroots voter mobilization. Political Communication, 30(1), 42–57.

33.

Wong

(2006). Democracy’s promise: Immigrants and american civic institutions. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.29 MB

Encouraging Black and Latinx Radio Audiences to Register to Vote: A Field Experiment

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material