From Rights to Votes: Understanding political knowledge and mobilization via text messaging among system-impacted groups (2024)

Last registered on October 10, 2024

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
From Rights to Votes: Understanding political knowledge and mobilization via text messaging among system-impacted groups (2024)
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014424
Initial registration date
September 24, 2024

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
October 07, 2024, 6:52 PM EDT

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

Last updated
October 10, 2024, 7:57 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of California, Irvine

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of California, Berkeley

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-09-25
End date
2025-11-04
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
Individuals with criminal records often have low voting rates in states where they are legally eligible to participate in elections. Misinformation about eligibility, lack of knowledge, and lack of interest are all challenges to voting. Even though text messaging interventions to increase voting rates are commonplace among the general population (even if not very effective), it is unclear whether text messaging can address barriers to voting among system-impacted groups (i.e., individuals with records and those affected by the criminal legal system), who have unique needs and challenges to voting.

Using a randomized controlled trial (RCT), we experimentally test whether and how text messaging can increase electoral participation. We leverage insights from adaptive text messaging interventions, which address variation in individuals’ responses to interventions by tailoring treatment to time-varying characteristics observed throughout the study. Using information about participants’ registration status, we adjust our interventions to tailor prospective messages accordingly.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Sugie, Naomi and Emily Zhang. 2024. "From Rights to Votes: Understanding political knowledge and mobilization via text messaging among system-impacted groups (2024)." AEA RCT Registry. October 10. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14424-2.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2024-09-25
Intervention End Date
2024-11-05

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Voter registration (whether participants registered and if yes, when they registered to vote) and voter turnout (whether participants voted) in the November 2024 election among study participants and their household members.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will use text messaging to reach individuals impacted by the criminal legal system and experimentally test whether and how text messaging interventions increase registration and voting rates.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
We will randomly assign eligible individuals to one of the three experimental groups with a randomization software.
Randomization Unit
Individuals
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
0
Sample size: planned number of observations
40,000 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Approximately 13,000 per treatment arm
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of California, Irvine
IRB Approval Date
2024-09-17
IRB Approval Number
1483
Analysis Plan

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