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Voter EngagementInformationPositive

Text Message Get-Out-the-Vote Campaigns

Stanford / Yale / IPA (Malhotra, Michelson, Rogers, Valenzuela and others) · California and multiple US states · 2011

Summary

Text message GOTV experiments revealed something important about civic communication: small, timely reminders produce reliable effects even when people already know about the election and intend to vote. The mechanism appears to be salience and friction reduction — the message makes voting feel immediate and provides information (polling place, hours) that removes a minor but real barrier. Effect sizes are small per contact but the channel is cheap enough that cost-per-vote compares favorably to labor-intensive methods like door-to-door canvassing. The pooled analysis across six studies was important: it established that the effect was not a one-site artifact but a consistent finding across different states, elections, and message formulations. Text GOTV is now among the most thoroughly replicated findings in political behavior research.

Research question

"Do personalized text message reminders increase voter turnout, and do they substitute for or complement other contact methods?"

Methodology

Intervention

Registered voters were randomly assigned to receive personalized text message reminders to vote in the days before an election, including their polling place address, the date and time, and a call to action. Multiple experiments varied message timing (1 day before, 2 days before), personalization level, and message content.

Assignment

Individual-level randomized controlled trial across multiple elections; random assignment from voter rolls in treatment and control groups

Sample size

Pooled across six studies: approximately 125,000 voters

Primary outcome

Verified voter turnout from official records

Effect estimate

Average effect: 0.3–0.9 percentage points across studies; effects are reliable but small per message; at scale (statewide campaigns reaching millions), effects translate to tens of thousands of additional votes

Decision

Results established text messaging as a cost-effective turnout tool (estimated $14–28 per additional vote vs. $29–35 for door-to-door canvassing); adopted widely by campaigns and civic organizations; SMS campaigns now standard in US election operations; subsequent research found diminishing returns with saturation and the importance of message personalization

Result

Positive

Average effect: 0.3–0.9 percentage points across studies; effects are reliable but small per message; at scale (statewide campaigns reaching millions), effects translate to tens of thousands of additional votes

Evidence strength

Strong

Randomized trial, replicated across multiple sites or studies.

Replication status

Replicated

Institution

Stanford / Yale / IPA (Malhotra, Michelson, Rogers, Valenzuela and others)

Location

California and multiple US states

Year

2011

Policy area

Voter Engagement

Mechanism

Information

More from these institutions

Other trials of this mechanism

Cite this entry

Stanford / Yale / IPA (Malhotra, Michelson, Rogers, Valenzuela and others). (2011). Text Message Get-Out-the-Vote Campaigns. The Experiment Society Registry. Retrieved from https://www.experimentsociety.org/registry/text-message-gotv (primary report: https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/pcglobal/files/malhotra_michelson_rogers_valenzuela_2011.pdf)

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