Mobilizing African-American Voters Using Direct Mail and Commercial Phone Banks: A Field Experiment

Last registered on May 10, 2016

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Mobilizing African-American Voters Using Direct Mail and Commercial Phone Banks: A Field Experiment
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0001230
Initial registration date
May 10, 2016

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
May 10, 2016, 9:11 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Columbia University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2000-09-01
End date
2000-12-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This essay summarizes the results of a large-scale randomized experiment conducted during the 2000 election campaign by the NAACP National Voter Fund, which sought to mobilize African-American voters. Focusing solely on the direct mail and phone banking components of the NAACP-NVF campaign, this study examines the voting behavior of 980,208 participants residing in single-voter households, 1.7 percent of whom were randomly assigned to a control group. The experiment permits us to estimate (1) the extent to which the National Voter Fund’s phone calls and direct mail increased voter turnout and (2) the approximate cost per vote. Within this sample, the NVF’s two pieces of GOTV mail, three live phone calls, and two recorded phone calls had modest effects, generating approximately 7,100 additional votes at $158 per vote. The upper bound of a 90 percent confidence interval puts these figures at 16,214 additional votes at $69 per vote.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Green, Donald. 2016. "Mobilizing African-American Voters Using Direct Mail and Commercial Phone Banks: A Field Experiment." AEA RCT Registry. May 10. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1230-1.0
Former Citation
Green, Donald. 2016. "Mobilizing African-American Voters Using Direct Mail and Commercial Phone Banks: A Field Experiment." AEA RCT Registry. May 10. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1230/history/8156
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Approximately one million registered African-American voters in ten states randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions. Treatment voters received up to five phone calls (three by actual African-American callers and two automated calls) and in some cases additional direct mail that encouraged turnout. While the phone calls were targeted to every treatment voter, the mailings targeted young and middle-aged voters who had abstained from voting during one or more recent elections.
Intervention Start Date
2000-10-10
Intervention End Date
2000-11-07

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Voter turnout
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Voter turnout information was collected from public voting records compiled by the Aristotle International organization.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The National Voter Fund purchased a database with information of 3.7 Million African-American voters, of which approximately 1 million voters, across ten states, were chosen as sample for the trial. 98.3 percent (approximately 963,500) were randomly assigned to receive mailings and phones calls, while the remaining 1.7 percent was randomly assigned to receive nothing (control).

Phone calls were made to the treatment group voters starting four weeks before, and including on, the November 7 election day. Voters were attempted to be called up to five times before election day, although the precise mix of calls and mail varied by state.

The direct mail was targeted to young voters who had abstained from voting in recent elections. Prior to random assignment, one third of the sample received pre-experimental mailers to weed out bad addresses. These mailers were sent with equal probability to treatment and control groups thus should not lead to bias in the findings. The experimental mailer focused on the issue of discrimination, featuring a white cop pulling over a black motorist, in order to get-out-the-vote.

Voter turnout data was collected from public records.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Simple random assignment implemented by the list vendor (under the researcher's supervision) that supplied names to the mail house and phone bank.
Randomization Unit
Individual voter
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Study not clustered
Sample size: planned number of observations
980,208
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Control = 16,712
Phone treatment = 963,496

Eligibility for mail varied by state, age, and past vote history
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
N/A
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
November 07, 2000, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
December 31, 2000, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
Study not clustered
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
980,208
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Control = 16,712 Treatment = 963,496
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
No
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Abstract
MOBILIZING AFRICAN-AMERICAN VOTERS USING DIRECT MAIL AND COMMERCIAL PHONE BANKS: A FIELD EXPERIMENT

This essay summarizes the results of a large-scale randomized experiment conducted during the 2000 election campaign by the NAACP National Voter Fund, which sought to mobilize African-American voters. Focusing solely on the direct mail and phone banking components of the NAACP-NVF campaign, this study examines the voting behavior of 980,208 participants residing in single-voter households, 1.7 percent of whom were randomly assigned to a control group. The experiment permits us to estimate (1) the extent to which the National Voter Fund’s phone calls and direct mail increased voter turnout and (2) the approximate cost per vote. Within this sample, the NVF’s two pieces of GOTV mail, three live phone calls, and two recorded phone calls had modest effects, generating approximately 7,100 additional votes at $158 per vote. The upper bound of a 90 percent confidence interval puts these figures at 16,214 additional votes at $69 per vote.
Citation
Green, Donald P. 2004. “Mobilizing African-American Voters Using Direct Mail and Commercial Phone Banks: A Field Experiment.” Political Research Quarterly 57(2): 245-255.

Reports & Other Materials