New Voters Project, in cooperation with Working Assets and researchers at the University of Michigan and Princeton University, has released a study that shows text messages increased an individual young voter’s likelihood to turnout by 4.2 percent in the November 2006 elections. The fact sheet is available here and the full report is available here in PDF format.
This report presents one of the first bits of real data to show the effectiveness of text messaging in getting out the vote. A short, to the point message proved most effective and the cost per vote generated was an extremely low $1.56 per vote compared to $20 for phone calls or $67 for direct mail.
One bit of hesitation on the part of Republicans may come in the demographics of this report. 57% of all respondents labeled themselves as Democrats compared to only 13% calling themselves Republicans. This could just be the result of national sentiment in 2006 or how the researchers went about retrieving their sample pool, but it does show some limitations of the report.
Another figure to pay attention to is that while 43% of the respondents reported a positive reaction and 25% said they felt the message was a helpful reminder to vote, 21% were confused or surprised and another 10% were outright annoyed by the message.
As a GOTV move in general, the method seems to work well. Whether texting can be applied as a way to get out a candidate’s message and sway a voter as opposed to simply “preaching to the choir” is still up for debate.
See CNet’s News.com’s coverage here.
See e.politics’s coverage here.