TY - JOUR
T1 - Do text messages increase voter registration? Evidence from RCTs with a local authority and an advocacy organisation in the UK
AU - Cheng-Matsuno, Vanessa
AU - Foos, Florian
AU - John, Peter
AU - Unan, Asli
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the UK Democracy Fund for funding the study. We thank our partners in the local authority and advocacy organisation without whom we could have not done these trials. We also thank the Electoral Commission, in particular Phil Thompson, for support over access to the registration and voter turnout data. We are grateful to Theresa Bischof, Tereza Holubová, Adam Keyworth, Sara Luxmoore, Len Metson, Johannes Rosenbusch, Olea Rugumayo, Yasmina O'Sullivan, and Joey Wolfbauer for excellent research assistance.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, text messages have become an increasingly attractive tool of voter registration. At the same time, in countries without automated registration, advocacy organisations play a more prominent role in supplementing the efforts of official bodies in registering voters. However, most available, robust evidence on whether voter registration campaigns work is based on campaigns conducted by official bodies charged with electoral registration. We present the results of two RCTs that aimed to increase voter registration in the UK using SMS-text messages, relying mainly on behavioural messaging. One was conducted by a local authority, while the other was implemented by an issue advocacy organisation that had no prior involvement in voter registration. In line with previous findings, the local authority's text messages resulted in an increased registration rate of eight percentage-points, which translates into a three percentage-point increase in voter turnout. However, the advocacy organisation's text messages neither increased voter registration, nor turnout, no matter whether the text message offered a personal follow-up conversation, or not. Given that many voter registration campaigns are run by advocacy organisations and text messages are an increasingly important mobilisation tool, this raises questions about the scope conditions of existing findings.
AB - In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, text messages have become an increasingly attractive tool of voter registration. At the same time, in countries without automated registration, advocacy organisations play a more prominent role in supplementing the efforts of official bodies in registering voters. However, most available, robust evidence on whether voter registration campaigns work is based on campaigns conducted by official bodies charged with electoral registration. We present the results of two RCTs that aimed to increase voter registration in the UK using SMS-text messages, relying mainly on behavioural messaging. One was conducted by a local authority, while the other was implemented by an issue advocacy organisation that had no prior involvement in voter registration. In line with previous findings, the local authority's text messages resulted in an increased registration rate of eight percentage-points, which translates into a three percentage-point increase in voter turnout. However, the advocacy organisation's text messages neither increased voter registration, nor turnout, no matter whether the text message offered a personal follow-up conversation, or not. Given that many voter registration campaigns are run by advocacy organisations and text messages are an increasingly important mobilisation tool, this raises questions about the scope conditions of existing findings.
KW - RCTs
KW - SMS-messages
KW - Voter registration
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85146074434&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.31219/osf.io/adr9g
DO - 10.31219/osf.io/adr9g
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85146074434
SN - 0261-3794
VL - 81
JO - ELECTORAL STUDIES
JF - ELECTORAL STUDIES
M1 - 102572
ER -