Does Email Suppress Turnout on Election Day? Experimental Evidence from the 2016 General Election

Can inexpensive, impersonal methods of contact such as unsolicited email increase voter turnout? While email has potential advantages as a mobilization tool, existing experimental work suggests it is relatively ineffective. In this paper, we examine the effect of email messages sent from an academic researcher on voters’ decision to turn out to the polls on election day. We use publicly available data to randomly expose a subset of Florida voters to email messages that encourage them to vote in the 2016 general election. Consistent with previous research, our topline finding is that none of the mobilization approaches we tested increased turnout. More importantly, we find a pronounced demobilizing effect among minority voters. Our findings encourage campaigns to think critically about the use of massive impersonal mobilization methods.