*Swing Blue Alliance and The Friday Action Group sent postcards that increased turnout by 1.2% for the 2024 Presidential primary. Joe Biden was not on the ballot, thus voters had to request a Democratic ballot and write in his name. The cards provided this information on how to write
in Joe Biden. The result compares well to other GOTV mail, although the context was unusual. Pre-printed cards and handwritten decorated cards performed equally well. They were sent to likely Democrats who had high turnout scores, so it is likely that the votes were for Biden.
SBA Research staff conducted a rigorous analysis of the campaign using a randomized controlled trial design. In addition to comparing turnout in the group sent cards to controls, we compared the turnout effect of the two types of cards. 34,507 cards were sent to voters with Democratic support Scores of over 70 and presidential primary turnout scores of 70 or more. 26,349 treatment group voters were sent the SBA printed card, 8,158 were mailed a Friday Action Group handwritten card, and 5,846 were controls who were not sent either card. Assignment to these groups was made using a random number generator.The postcards may have worked by providing clear directions on how to write in Joe Biden in this unusual election. Equal effects by the two cards suggests that volunteer effort may be more efficient with use of pre-printed postcards. (A Swing Blue Alliance Postcard Experiment) (Loewenstein, 2024)
