VoteAmerica's 2022 Wisconsin billboard advertising program

Program design by Debra Cleaver (VoteAmerica) and Professor Scott L Minkoff (SUNY Purchase). Evaluation and analysis Professor Scott L. Minkoff.

Summary

For the 2022 general election cycle, VoteAmerica ran a billboard advertising campaign in Milwaukee, Madison, and Racine, Wisconsin. This campaign encouraged people to vote on Election Day and reminded them that they could register to vote at the polls. Using a mobile phone survey and a post-election matching analysis, this program evaluation examines the effectiveness of this campaign at mobilizing voters to the polls and encouraging Election Day Registration (EDR). While the challenges to establishing a clear causal relationship between the billboards and their goals are significant, the results indicate that VoteAmerica’s billboards likely did motivate turnout. However, evidence that the billboards increased awareness and utilization of EDR was not present.