Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout

Front Cover
Brookings Institution Press, Jul 30, 2019 - Political Science - 260 pages

The most important element in every election is getting voters to the polls—these get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts make the difference between winning and losing office. With the first three editions of Get Out the Vote, Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber broke ground by introducing a new scientific approach to the challenge of voter mobilization and profoundly transformed how campaigns operate. Get Out the Vote has become the reference text for those who manage campaigns and study voter mobilization.

In this expanded and updated edition, Green and Gerber incorporate data from a trove of recent studies that shed new light on the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of various campaign tactics, including door-to-door canvassing, e-mail, direct mail, and telephone calls. The new edition gives special attention to “relational organizing” through friend-to-friend communication and events.

Available in time for the 2020 presidential campaign, this practical guide to voter mobilization will again be a must-read for consultants, candidates, and grassroots organizations.

 

Contents

Preface
vii
Why Voter Mobilization Matters
11
Evidence versus Received Wisdom
19
DoortoDoor Canvassing
31
Leaflets and Signage
51
Direct Mail
65
Commercial Phone Banks Volunteer Phone Banks and Robocalls
79
Electronic Mail Social Media and Text Messaging
101
Voter Registration and Voter Turnout
149
Strategies for Effective Messaging
161
What Works What Doesnt and Whats Next
177
MetaAnalysis of DoortoDoor Canvassing Experiments
207
MetaAnalysis of Direct Mail Experiments
213
MetaAnalysis of PhoneCall Experiments
219
Notes
223
Index
245

Using Events to Draw Voters to the Polls
121
Using Mass Media to Mobilize Voters
133
Back Cover
254
Copyright

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About the author (2019)

Donald P. Green is a professor of political science at Yale University, where he has taught for more than a decade. An expert on elections and campaign finance, he has written widely on public opinion and political behavior and is coauthor of Partisan Hearts and Minds: Political Parties and the Social Identities of Voters (Yale, 2000).

Alan S. Gerber is a professor of political science and director of the Center for the Study of American Politics at Yale University. He has published extensively on campaigns and elections and is coeditor (with Eric Patashnik) of Promoting the General Welfare: New Perspectives on Government Performance (Brookings, 2006).

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