Can parties recruit postal voters? Experimental evidence from Britain
Can parties recruit postal voters? Experimental evidence from Britain
While easily-accessible postal voting is on the rise in many countries, the implications for electoral campaigns are largely under-researched. Indeed, parties actively try to sign supporters up to postal votes to make it easier for them to turn out. But how effective are these efforts to recruit supporters on to postal votes? We present an original, pre-registered postal voter recruitment experiment – the first conducted outside the US – completed during the May 2018 UK elections. We test the effect of a common recruitment tactic – letters and application forms sent to supporters. Despite being widely used by parties, we find that these efforts are ineffective at both recruiting and mobilising supporters. While the rewards of successfully signing supporters up to postal voting are potentially substantial, our results suggest that parties should consider the most effective ways of doing so.
United Kingdom, electoral campaigns, liberal democrats, political parties, postal voting
1-7
Townsley, Joshua
b67ce2e7-3fe6-4483-89da-4e0329f0183e
Turnbull-Dugarte, Stuart J.
e25c6280-842c-407f-a961-6472eea5d845
April 2020
Townsley, Joshua
b67ce2e7-3fe6-4483-89da-4e0329f0183e
Turnbull-Dugarte, Stuart J.
e25c6280-842c-407f-a961-6472eea5d845
Townsley, Joshua and Turnbull-Dugarte, Stuart J.
(2020)
Can parties recruit postal voters? Experimental evidence from Britain.
Electoral Studies, 64, , [102022].
(doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2019.02.013).
Abstract
While easily-accessible postal voting is on the rise in many countries, the implications for electoral campaigns are largely under-researched. Indeed, parties actively try to sign supporters up to postal votes to make it easier for them to turn out. But how effective are these efforts to recruit supporters on to postal votes? We present an original, pre-registered postal voter recruitment experiment – the first conducted outside the US – completed during the May 2018 UK elections. We test the effect of a common recruitment tactic – letters and application forms sent to supporters. Despite being widely used by parties, we find that these efforts are ineffective at both recruiting and mobilising supporters. While the rewards of successfully signing supporters up to postal voting are potentially substantial, our results suggest that parties should consider the most effective ways of doing so.
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Accepted/In Press date: 20 February 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 27 February 2019
Published date: April 2020
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Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
Keywords:
United Kingdom, electoral campaigns, liberal democrats, political parties, postal voting
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Local EPrints ID: 437643
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/437643
ISSN: 0261-3794
PURE UUID: 3dc6367b-7486-4c57-bc76-ef99260081b0
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Date deposited: 07 Feb 2020 17:32
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:01
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Author:
Joshua Townsley
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