VoteAmerica's 2022 same day registration postcard evaluation

Program design by Jennifer Lauv (VoteAmerica). Program execution by Malbert Media. Program evaluation and memos prepared by Professor Donald P. Green, Columbia University and Aaron Schein, Columbia University

Abstract:

During the 2022 general election cycle, VoteAmerica, a nonpartisan organization that seeks to promote voter turnout, launched a direct-mail program that involved mailing over 100,000 postcards to households of registered voters. A large randomized trial was conducted to assess the effects of a nonpartisan get-out-the-vote (GOTV) postcard on turnout in four states with same-day registration. The postcard, which urged both voting and registration, was mailed to registered voters in an effort to increase both their turnout and the turnout of others in the household who might be unregistered. Using a combination of individual-level and carrier route-level random assignments, this study offers clear evidence that the postcard increased turnout among recipients by just over 0.2 percentage points. We find little evidence that it elevated turnout among the unregistered.

Takeaways:

The 2022 SDR postcard campaign produced clear effects on voter turnout, elevating turnout among recipients by approximately 0.22 percentage points. Given that the campaign cost $49,952 to deploy 104,068 postcards, the implied cost per vote is (49952/104068)/.0022 = $218. This figure is in line with other large-scale experimental evaluations of nonpartisan mailings with conventional GOTV messages.