The Nation: Text the Vote

[marmar]

from The Nation:




TEXT THE VOTE?...A new study from the New Voters Project, a non-partisan organization that registers youth voters, shows that text messaging may be the most effective form of election-day voter mobilization. Not only did it increase turn-out during the 2006 election more than traditional methods such as phone calls, flyering, and door-to-door canvassing, it was by far the cheapest, costing $1.56 per vote generated, as opposed to $30-60 for other methods.

The study was conducted during the 2006 election by sending text-message reminders to vote to over 4000 randomly chosen registered voters. Researchers found that the messages increased the chances of a recipient voting by 4.2 percent.

Cell-phone messaging overwhelmingly targets young voters--according to the study, in 2006 over a quarter of Americans under 25 had only cell-phones, not landlines. Candidates have already tried to capitalize on the cell-phone phenomena--Edwards' and Romney's websites both offer text-message updates, and on barackobama.com you can set your ringtone to excerpts from his 2004 DNC speech. Obama's campaign has even gone so far as to blame cell-phones for his lag in primary polls.

According to a 2004 study by CIRCLE, a civic participation think-tank, young voters respond especially well to same-day contact. This initiative is just one of many hoping to turn out the youth--several states now allow pre-registration for 17-year olds who will be of voting age by election-day. In addition, campaigns and voter-mobilization groups are targeting and Facebook and MySpace.

All this technology is fine and good for those who already want to vote--but in the end, it will be the candidates and the issues that matter. As Jane Kleeb, director of Young Voter's PAC, blogged recently, "campaigns must do more than use MySpace and MTV to capture young voters." Without the substance, it's all just bells and whistles.


Posted by Cora Currier at 10/05/2007 @ 4:52pm | Email This Post

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45&pid=240440

[IndyOp]

1. I K&Red a thread about this yesterday and I'll do it again today - this is important!

If we want our youth out in OVERWHELMING force, we need to move on this.

:bounce:

[Wapsie B]

2. That does sound great!

Now to just not have to worry about cell phone outages in certain key areas on election day. I'm in a weird mood today. :tinfoilhat: