Engaging People on Probation or Parole in New Jersey

• In Event: New Directions in Policy Feedback and Mass Publics Studies

Abstract

Millions of people in the US are eligible to vote despite past criminal convictions, and that is true for an increasing number of people as states move to expand access to the franchise for people with felony convictions. In this study, we partnered with a community based organization in New Jersey to develop a novel mailer targeted to people on probation and parole who saw their rights restored in 2019 after the successful "1844 No More" Campaign. Narratives collected through 30 in-depth interviews and participant observation in the organization's meetings around registering newly enfranchised people allow us to identify several themes important to people with felony convictions. Chief among them is the importance of a trusted messenger in delivering the message that it is important to exercise one's right to vote. Partnering with a member of the organization who themselves had their rights restored, we developed a unique mailer that employs the trusted messenger strategy. We assessed the effectiveness of the mailer against a much more simple version that informs individuals of their rights, and a control group who did not receive a mailer. Public records requests generated lists of people who were currently on probation, or parole, or had recently finished supervision, and a commercial data vendor provided current mailing addresses for as many of these people as they could find. This process yielded a list of nearly 24,000 people currently or recently on supervision in the state who could be sent mail. This paper reports the results of this randomized control trial encouraging newly enfranchised people in New Jersey to vote.

Authors

• Hannah Walker, University of Texas at Austin

• Tova Wang, nvf

• Melissa R. Michelson, Menlo College

• Ariel Rebecca White, MIT