Who is mobilized to vote by information about voter ID laws?

Abstract

Advocacy groups often work to educate the public about voting requirements following changes to election laws. These outreach efforts have the potential to mobilize partisan groups who consider the laws a threat to their party’s electoral prospects. In the 2017 Virginia election, we partnered with an advocacy organization to conduct a field experiment evaluating the effects of the organization’s outreach campaign. We randomized which registered voters were mailed one of three informational postcards providing details about voter identification requirements in place at the time in Virginia. Overall, the postcards had minimal effects on turnout compared to the no-contact control group. However, each version of the postcards significantly increased turnout among subgroups based on their underlying partisanship and/or vote-propensity. Democrats were significantly mobilized by postcards highlighting the potentially disproportionate impact of ID laws on demographic groups that traditionally support the Democratic Party, with approximately a two percentage point increase in turnout overall, and even higher increases among high vote-propensity Democrats. A simple, informational postcard, on the other hand, elevated turnout among low vote-propensity recipients by two percentage points. The postcard treatments did not significantly increase turnout among Republicans or mid vote-propensity registrants of either party.