Get out the vote
GOTV is generally not required for elections when there are effective compulsory voting systems in place, other than perhaps to register first time voters.
The first type is general voter registration campaigns and encouragement to vote, conducted by electoral authorities or nonpartisan organizations.
In many countries, the task of electoral authorities includes the promotion of and assisting in the registration of potential voters, and in the exercise of the right to vote.
[2] Shortly before the elections the Europe-Georgia Institute started the "Your Voice, Our Future" (YVOF Campaign) in the village of Bazaleti [ka].
Young people planned creative activities such as flash mobs, plays, theatre sketches and attracted media attention.
[4] Once canvassing was performed to identify likely Labour voters, these were compiled onto 'Reading pads' or 'Mikardo sheets' featuring the names and addresses of supporters and pasted onto a large table or plank of wood.
These numbers are regularly collected from the polling stations and collated in a campaign headquarters for each ward, often referred to in the UK as a committee room.
Such turnout suppression can be advantageous where any combination of three conditions apply: Political scientists have conducted hundreds of field experiments to learn which get out the vote tactics are effective, when, and on which types of voters.
[8] In terms of mobilization, studies have found that door-to-door canvassing increases turnout among the contacted households with approximately 4.3 percentage points, according to experts Alan Gerber and Gregory Huber in 2016[9] while a 2013 study of 71 canvasses including many that targeted low propensity voters found turnout increased by 2–3 percentage points.
One field experiment found that GOTV phone calls were largely ineffective, and that ease of access to polling locations had the largest impact on voter turnout.
[20] In 2004, Rock the Vote paid to run TV ads aimed at young voters, on a random sample of small cable systems where they could measure the effects.
Turnout was three percentage points higher among 18- to 19-year-olds in these sample areas than in the control group covered by other similar small cable systems; there was less effect above age 22.
[21][14] In November 2012 and 2013, Rock the Vote experimented with Facebook ads to encourage voter turnout by telling people the number of days remaining until the election and which of their friends "liked" the countdown.
[14] Several mobile apps tell people where to vote, identify their elected officials, or search candidates' positions, though no evidence measures how much these raise turnout.
