New Study: Text Message Reminders Increase Voter Turnout by 4.6%

A new study conducted by Credo Mobile and the Student PIRGs during the 2008 primary season confirms data from 2006: text message reminders to go vote can increase voter turnout 4.6 percentage points when they are delivered on election day, and 2.6 points if delivered before election day.

You can read both the 2006 and 2008 studies here.

Why does this matter?

Young voters matter and are a very mobile population that is increasingly difficult to reach by traditional campaign outreach channels such as telephone calls to landlines.

• A quarter of Americans under the age of 25 used a mobile phone as their only telephone in the first half of 2006
• The mobile-only population is projected to reach 30 percent of the entire American public by the 2008 election
• Text/SMS messaging is already widely used among young
  people as a form of communication

Here's how they conducted the study:

On February 5th, 2008 (Super Tuesday) researchers sent text message reminders to 3600 mobile phone numbers chosen at random from a pool of 5400 mostly young people who had completed voter registration applications. Afterward, participants were matched to voter records to determine if they had voted in the election.

To spread the use of text message election reminders, Credo Mobile just launched Text Out The Vote, a service that lets you pre-load your friend's cell phone numbers into a website and have Credo text them on election day. Unfortunately, it looks like it also signs your friends up to receive SMS spam from Credo, or anyone Credo gives their list to.