How Compulsory Voting Affects Parties

This second theoretical chapter lays out expectations about the impact of compulsory voting on the ways in which political parties seek votes. It argues that compulsory voting’s influence depends on whether parties are situated inside or outside of the political mainstream. It first proposes that parties’ reduction of get-out-the-vote tactics under mandatory rules will be stronger if they belong to the political mainstream. It then develops expectations about mandatory voting’s influence on the ways in which parties position themselves to attract support. The chapter puts forth the hypothesis that compulsory voting incentivizes mainstream parties to move toward the center of ideological space in an effort to appeal to voting populations that are broadly reflective of society as a whole. For non-mainstream parties, alternatively, mandatory voting incentivizes vote seeking at the extremes in order to appeal to those who are cajoled to the voting booth against their will.

The Effectiveness of a Neighbor-to-Neighbor Get-Out-the-Vote Program: Evidence from the 2017 Virginia State Elections

We analyze the results of a neighbor-to-neighbor, grassroots get-out-the-vote (GOTV) drive in Virginia, in which unpaid volunteers were encouraged to contact at least three nearby registered voters who were likely co-partisans yet relatively unlikely to vote in the 2017 state election. To measure the campaign’s effectiveness, we used a pairwise randomization design whereby each volunteer was assigned to one randomly selected member of the most geographically proximate pair of voters. Because some volunteers unexpectedly signed up to participate outside their home districts, we analyze the volunteers who adhered to the original hyper-local program design separately from those who did not. We find that the volunteers in the original program design drove a statistically significant 2.3% increase in turnout, which was concentrated in the first voter pair assigned to each volunteer. We discuss implications for the study and design of future GOTV efforts.

The X-factors

This paper asks to ground the scholarly knowledge about the role and reception of the X (or cross) as a visual cue for elections in Canadian political visual culture. While the character X (or the symbol of a cross as it is often referred to) is one of the most prominent visual cues used in visual voting encouragement materials in Canadian visual culture, little, if at all, is known about its reception by audiences. This paper asks to contribute to the understanding of the symbol and its reception by citizens. The paper is divided into three sections: 1) establishing the status of the character X as a symbol of elections in Canada, 2) examining ideal uses and occasional misuses of the X, 3) exploring the possibility of replacing the X with an alternative - the checkmark (✔). In conclusion, this work suggests that there is a growing need to reconsider the use of the X in Get Out the Vote posters, and it offers alternatives to it.

COVID-19 will mean US campaign strategy changes

Significance The pandemic has upended the staples of retail election politics, including in-person events, but not candidates’ need to get out the vote (GOTV) on November 3. Both parties will spend heavily to define the contest in their terms and reach voters. Impacts COVID-19 will push election campaigns more towards digital fundraising and advertising operations. Digital political advertising will pass USD1bn this election for the first time, more than tripling 2016 spending. Controversy over the postal service’s ability to deliver mail-in ballots on time will spur demands for more secure online voting.