Text-Messages Drive Voter Turnout

Registration numbers and high rates of early voting point to a real increase in youth voting this year, but organizers haven't let up in their push to get young people to the polls on election day. It seems the most effective new tool may be text messaging.

Young Democrats of America have a plan for a text-message blast reminding people to vote on November 4th. Their program, "Young Voter Revolution," allows voters to sign up to receive an election day reminder by texting "VOTEDEM" to a simple number. It also encourages them to forward the message to all the contacts in their cellphone. A group called Credo Mobile has a similar program through the website Txt Out The Vote.

Text message reminders were shown to boost youth turnout by 4.6 percentage points during the "Super Tuesday" primary contests this February, according to a study by Credo Mobile and Student PIRGs. The Obama campaign has used texting to great effect as a way of reaching out to voters, most famously through their plan (somewhat foiled by leaks) to announce Joe Biden as Obama's VP pick via text.

The ubiquity of cell phone usage among young voters makes them that much easier to reach now. Student PIRG found that in 2006, 1 in 4 Americans under 25 used cellphones as their only telephone, a proportion which they suspect has grown since then. Beyond that, they are also much cheaper than traditional phone-call and mail reminders. Recently, I wrote about the way that viral communication among young people has sent voter registration through the roof-- we'll see if it can have a similar effect on election day.

Comments (7)

1. 6 days, Ms Currier.

   Your "youth vote" turns out...great. Happy to admit I was wrong.

   They don't....no excuses from you or Mr Connery!

   Posted by Maskdelta at 10/29/2008 @ 11:59am

2. If i in 4 Americans under age 25 use cell phones as their only phone, then Obama may just run off with the election if the young really get out and vote and not just talk about it after registering.

   I am hoping the polls are not correct and the the race is not as close as some predict because of this.

   Posted by Margie_Miller1 at 10/29/2008 @ 1:04pm

3. President Obama, Vice-President Biden.

   What a fine ring tone.

   Posted by sloper at 10/29/2008 @ 3:05pm

4. If i in 4 Americans under age 25 use cell phones as their only phone, then Obama may just run off with the election if the young really get out and vote and not just talk about it after registering.-----Posted by Margie_Miller1 at 10/29/2008 @ 1:04pm

   Unfortunately the latter, not the former have been the history of the "youth vote" back to McGovern.

   Posted by Maskdelta at 10/29/2008 @ 3:37pm

5. "I'm a bah humbug type..."

   Posted by lvliberty1 at 10/29/2008 @ 5:11pm

   no. really?

   Posted by Benchrest at 10/29/2008 @ 5:18pm

6. Posted by lvliberty1 at 10/29/2008 @ 5:40pm

   Maybe, but you are a grouch when you blog.

   Posted by Benchrest at 10/29/2008 @ 5:57pm

7. "I don't think anything will change if Obama is elected. If McCain is elected, I don't think anything would change either," said Susan Miller, 42, a Los Angeles accountant tentatively backing Libertarian Bob Barr.

   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27470956/

   Maybe some the higher information "undecided" voters are waiting till the last minute to see how close the race is according to the polls so they can safely avoid the "spoiler" effect and vote their conscience for neither Obama or McCain.

   Posted by OneVote at 11/02/2008 @ 3:24pm