Mobilizing inclusion: transforming the electorate through get-out-the-vote campaigns

Abstract

Which get-out-the-vote efforts actually succeed in ethnoracial communities-and why? Analyzing the results from hundreds of original experiments, the authors of this book offer a persuasive new theory to explain why some methods work while others don't. Exploring and comparing a wide variety of efforts targeting ethnoracial voters, Lisa Garcia Bedolla and Melissa R. Michelson present a new theoretical frame-the Social Cognition Model of voting, based on an individual's sense of civic identity-for understanding get-out-the-vote effectiveness. Their book will serve as a useful guide for political practitioners, for it offers concrete strategies to employ in developing future mobilization efforts.