From Rights to Votes: The Electoral Mobilization of System-Impacted People

• In Event: 30268 - Political Identities and Ideologies in the United States

Abstract

Felony disenfranchisement laws in the United States have historically prohibited millions of people from voting, with disproportionate impacts on Black and Hispanic groups. However, since 1997, the majority of states have passed reforms, removing legal barriers for more than 2 million people. These laws are patchwork–e.g., varying by state and over time; consequently, many people may not realize their right to vote, as evidenced by very low registration and voting rates among people with felony convictions in recent elections. This study employs a randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of outreach interventions to increase registration and voting. In partnership with a multistate nonprofit organization, the research team sent nonpartisan election-related text messages to system-impacted people across five states in the weeks leading up to the November 2022 election. Receiving text messages increased the probability of new registrations by 1.5 percentage points, driven largely by increases of 5.2 percentage points for informational messages sent to people in California. Receiving text messages increased the probability of voting by 32.0 percentage points among newly registered voters, with effects mostly concentrated among people 50 years and younger. Although text messaging is a common, if not saturated, method of outreach among the general population, it is an impactful intervention to convey nonpartisan information about voting rights to system-impacted constituencies who are often overlooked by traditional outreach efforts.

Authors

• Naomi F. Sugie, University of California, Los Angeles

• Emily Zhang

• Iris Zhang, Stanford University

• Daniela Kaiser

• Kyle Winnen