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Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout
What are the most cost-effective ways to increase voter turnout? Whether the ambition is to win elections, promote civic engagement, or bolster the legitimacy of democratic institutions, this question is of enormous significance to those who run and study campaigns. Since the original edition appeared in 2004 Get Out the Vote has become the indispensable guide to understand how to mobilize voters. Combining information from their own extensive field research and the rapidly expanding number of studies conducted by a growing network of scholars and campaign consultants, Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber bring scientific rigor to the subject, challenging much of the conventional wisdom about what works and what doesn't in political campaigns. Updated to include the newest research and published in time for the 2024 election cycle, Get Out the Vote will again be the indispensable guide to voter mobilization for campaign managers, consultants, and activists across the political spectrum. In addition, Green and Gerber provide students an accessible introduction to campaign research methodology.
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
246 pages, Paperback
Published November 8, 2023
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22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 11, 2025
Get Out the Vote, by Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber, is not only for political nerds, but, on the other hand, it’s *mostly* for political nerds, mainly people who are in the position to work to—you guessed it—get out the vote.
From this book I learned that the most effective means, by far, to encourage people to vote is to talk with people we know, face to face. According to Green and Gerber, “Relational organizing” increases voter turnout by an astonishing 13.2%. The next closest, about half as effective, is phone calls from “enthusiastic volunteers,” but a lot of that research is a little older, i.e., from a time when people actually answered the phone. Nothing else comes close: “the more personal the interaction between campaign and potential voter, the more it raises a person’s chances of voting.” Turns out, for example, that mailers, robocalls, and TV and radio ads have no effect whatsoever—except occasionally when they actually suppress the vote! Oops. Fortunately for me as a reader, my political work is based almost exclusively on relational organizing, and since I love to canvass, it’s heartening that what I like best to do in politics is also what works best.
As you might guess from the statistics above, the book focuses on carefully controlled research studies, with treatment groups and control groups, and it ranks the findings according to the reliability of the research evidence: how many studies, how large, how carefully run. Although the authors are political science professors (at Columbia and Yale), the book is straightforwardly written and accessible even to someone like me, with the most rudimentary skills at understanding statistics.
As the title indicates, the book is about getting people TO vote, not getting them to vote in any particular way. That’s because it is extremely difficult to study the effects of persuasion techniques. The book has exactly six pages about persuasion. That’s a shame, since as Green and Gerber observe, if you get a nonvoter to the polls, you change the voter margin by one vote; when you change their vote, you net two votes. Fortunately or unfortunately, persuasion techniques (to the extent it can be determined) seem to have zero impact on which candidate someone votes for; persuasion does, however, seem to have some effect on nonpartisan issue campaigns. Unfortunately for me, I live in North Carolina, which doesn’t allow statewide issue campaigns.
For what it’s worth, the GOTV studies analyzed were run by nonpartisan organizations as well as both Democratic and Republican campaigns, targeting populations sympathetic to either party (women, racial minorities, evangelical Christians—a range), or to neither. Granted, in recent years, Republicans have more of a history of suppressing than encouraging voting, but I think it’s safe to say that the research findings don’t have an ideological bias.
I would recommend this book to anyone seriously engaged with planning or carrying out a political campaign, to help you to decide where to put your financial resources—if you have any—or your energies and those of the staffers or volunteers with whom you work.
From this book I learned that the most effective means, by far, to encourage people to vote is to talk with people we know, face to face. According to Green and Gerber, “Relational organizing” increases voter turnout by an astonishing 13.2%. The next closest, about half as effective, is phone calls from “enthusiastic volunteers,” but a lot of that research is a little older, i.e., from a time when people actually answered the phone. Nothing else comes close: “the more personal the interaction between campaign and potential voter, the more it raises a person’s chances of voting.” Turns out, for example, that mailers, robocalls, and TV and radio ads have no effect whatsoever—except occasionally when they actually suppress the vote! Oops. Fortunately for me as a reader, my political work is based almost exclusively on relational organizing, and since I love to canvass, it’s heartening that what I like best to do in politics is also what works best.
As you might guess from the statistics above, the book focuses on carefully controlled research studies, with treatment groups and control groups, and it ranks the findings according to the reliability of the research evidence: how many studies, how large, how carefully run. Although the authors are political science professors (at Columbia and Yale), the book is straightforwardly written and accessible even to someone like me, with the most rudimentary skills at understanding statistics.
As the title indicates, the book is about getting people TO vote, not getting them to vote in any particular way. That’s because it is extremely difficult to study the effects of persuasion techniques. The book has exactly six pages about persuasion. That’s a shame, since as Green and Gerber observe, if you get a nonvoter to the polls, you change the voter margin by one vote; when you change their vote, you net two votes. Fortunately or unfortunately, persuasion techniques (to the extent it can be determined) seem to have zero impact on which candidate someone votes for; persuasion does, however, seem to have some effect on nonpartisan issue campaigns. Unfortunately for me, I live in North Carolina, which doesn’t allow statewide issue campaigns.
For what it’s worth, the GOTV studies analyzed were run by nonpartisan organizations as well as both Democratic and Republican campaigns, targeting populations sympathetic to either party (women, racial minorities, evangelical Christians—a range), or to neither. Granted, in recent years, Republicans have more of a history of suppressing than encouraging voting, but I think it’s safe to say that the research findings don’t have an ideological bias.
I would recommend this book to anyone seriously engaged with planning or carrying out a political campaign, to help you to decide where to put your financial resources—if you have any—or your energies and those of the staffers or volunteers with whom you work.
September 26, 2024
This book is useful for anyone working around campaigns and wants to understand the data behind the politics of what is happening. I have won every campaign I have been on but it is important for me to understand that yes it has data behind it.
May 7, 2023
A comprehensive and accessible review of how getting out the vote works for campaigns. Although I found the examples to be enlightening, I did feel a bit over saturated with them by the end.
All in all a very well articulated book.
All in all a very well articulated book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews