Voter Turnout

Under Anjali's leadership, GovLabPHL, the Commissioner’s Office, and researchers from the
University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University tested different kinds of get-out-the-vote mail. 48,000 registered voters were randomly selected to receive mail from the Commissioner’s Office.

Overall, the mail was effective: people who received any mail turned out at 29.5 percent in the general election, a 1.1 percentage point increase over the control group (the equivalent of about 11,500 votes, if cards were sent to the whole city).

People who received primary reminders and follow-ups were more likely to vote in the general election (29.8 percent) than people who received mail only before the general election (29.1 percent). Due to the research design, we know that this difference is unlikely from chance alone (p = 0.058). Publications will be posted soon.