Do Radio Ads Increase Minority Voter Registration?: A Field Experiment

• In Event: Field and Natural Experiments on Electoral Behavior

Abstract

Voter registration rates among African American and Latinx citizens lag behind registration rates among whites. Partly as a result, whites constitute a larger share of those who vote than they do of the population at large. Traditional voter registration drives in schools, public places, or via door-to-door canvassing are proven methods for increasing registration rates in minority communities, but these outreach tactics became infeasible during the 2020 COVID-19 epidemic, which severely limited personal political contact. An alternative is to promote registration through mass media, such as local radio. The present study represents the first large-scale experiment to test the effects of radio ads on registration rates. During the run up to the November 2020 election, we identified 186 radio stations with predominantly Latinx or African American audiences; fifty randomly selected stations were assigned to a weeklong advertising campaign each week for three weeks, starting August 31st. The nonpartisan messages featured celebrity voices stressing the importance of the election and urging listeners, in English or Spanish, to visit vote.gov for registration materials and instructions, which were available in both languages. Outcomes were assessed by geocoding the number of new registrations that occurred within each of the radio station’s catchment areas. Our central hypothesis is that the intervention elevated registration rates and turnout among targeted ethnic groups in treated areas. We predict especially large effects in non-battleground states, where there were few competing political messages.

Authors

• Hayley Cohen, Columbia University

• Jose S Gomez, Columbia University

• Donald P. Green, Columbia University

• Joseph Sutherland, Columbia University