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Research Library

Read our research showcasing what we have done and where we go in the future. Educate yourself in the campaigning methodologies and best practices fight that will help Democrats win.

Evidence-Based Best Practices for Voter Interventions 

This is a list of important lessons from mainstream, well-conducted research on how to increase voter turnout and influence voters’ choices.  We focus on topics of particular interest to members of the Field Leaders Research Network, rather than trying to comprehensively address all relevant topics. We expand and update existing entries over time, as well as adding new entries.  Field leaders can share this information with their volunteers to help explain why we’re doing this and not doing that.

Caveats are in order: Research studies are done in specific conditions, and the most generalizable conclusions are based on many studies across a variety of different conditions. The conditions in the specific time and place where you are working may or may not match the conditions in some of the past research in which we have high confidence in general. If not, you might consider conducting a new study to increase our knowledge base.

A note on (Green & Gerber, 2023), which is the source of most of the initial entries of this list. This book contains many valuable elaborations on our summaries that have been derived from it. We strongly recommend that readers carefully consult the “Lessons Learned” sections from this book if you’re interested in a topic that it covers.

A note on the citations in parentheses: (The items in blue are links to original sources, or to our reference base in Zotero where you can find full citations.) (The names in black are the members of our team who gathered or composed the summaries.)

RATINGS OF CONFIDENCE

Each entry is rated in one of the 3 levels of confidence indicated by green stars, which were adapted from Green and Gerber’s book.

*** Reasonable Confidence Statements
This entry is based on multiple studies by different research groups covering diverse populations and situations, with sound research methods and converging conclusions.

** Provisional Confidence Statements
This entry is based on a few studies with sound research methods, sometimes with ambiguous or contradictory evidence from other sources.

* Statements Based on a Single Study
This entry is based on an original study with sound research methods that awaits replication.

Entries without a star rating represent two distinct categories.  The first consists of  studies about which we have insufficient information to evaluate the soundness of the research methods, mostly unpublished studies.  When the topic is particularly important, we will make efforts to gather the necessary information to make a rating. The second includes general position papers, notable news items, or conceptual presentations, rather than experimental research, per se.