Digital turnout mobilization
Enhancing voter turnout with digital messaging
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24227461 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kristine M Hansen (0000-0002-8286-4771, University of Copenhagen), Esther Ejrnæs Bastholm (University of Copenhagen) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-18 |
| Publication date | 2026-10-15 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | European Journal of Political Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0304-4130 • E-ISSN: 1475-6765 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1475676526101911 |
| OpenAlex | W7222319703 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 32 |
Voter turnout is declining across Europe, raising concerns about democratic legitimacy and prompting a search for effective mobilization strategies. The new digital era has transformed the landscape for political communication, making it possible to mobilize voters through direct digital messages. These messages have proven to be a low-cost and easily scalable tool, capable of reaching millions of voters efficiently and with broad coverage. We synthesize existing evidence through a comprehensive meta-analysis of voter mobilization experiments from the past decade that apply digital messages as a Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) tool. The analysis assesses the overall effectiveness of digital messaging in increasing turnout, with particular attention to its potential for engaging marginalized groups and promoting participatory equality. Second, we present results from a new population-wide GOTV experiment conducted during the 2024 European Parliament election in Denmark – the first to apply digital messages to the entire electorate. The intervention increased turnout by 0.5 percentage points. By using year-of-birth bins to estimate effects across all age cohorts and disaggregating the immigrant category into Western and non-Western subpopulations, we can examine previously unexplored in-depth heterogeneous effects. We find that digital messages consistently have positive effects on turnout, including among marginalized voters.
Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Social Media and Politics · Survey Methodology and Nonresponse
Leaving the Nest and the Social Act of Voting
The Legitimation of Power
The Legitimation of Power
Text Messages as Mobilization Tools
Minding the political engagement gap
Can governments use Get Out The Vote letters to solve Europe’s turnout crisis? Evidence from a field experiment
When is a Reminder Enough? Text Message Voter Mobilization in a European Context
Is Door-to-Door Canvassing Effective in Europe? Evidence from a Meta-study across Six European Countries
Increasing Inequality
Core and Peripheral Voters
Is it worth door-knocking? Evidence from a United Kingdom-based Get Out The Vote (Gotv) field experiment on the effect of party leaflets and canvass visits on voter turnout
An Experimental Test of Mobilization Effects in a Latino Community
It’s a Group Thing
Who is Mobilized to Vote by Short Text Messages? Evidence from a Nationwide Field Experiment with Young Voters
Who Is Mobilized to Vote? A Re‐Analysis of 11 Field Experiments
Don't Forget to Vote
Examining Voting Spillover Effects of Text Message Reminders
Living Together, Voting Together
The Generalizability of Social Pressure Effects on Turnout Across High-Salience Electoral Contexts
Field Experiments and the Study of Voter Turnout
How voter mobilization from short text messages travels within households and families
What are we missing? Explaining immigrant-origin voter turnout with standard and immigrant-specific theories
The relationship between age and turnout
A meta-analysis of voter mobilization tactics by electoral salience
Do text messages increase voter registration? Evidence from RCTs with a local authority and an advocacy organisation in the UK
Trickle-Up Political Socialization
Is Voting Contagious? Evidence from Two Field Experiments
Unequal Participation
| Highly cited | No |
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