The Impact of E-mail on the Use of New Convenience Voting Methods and Turnout by Overseas Voters: A Field Experiment to Address Their Challenges with New Technology

Abstract

Research on absentee and early voting laws has led many scholars to conclude that these convenience voting methods do little to boost turnout. But most of this work has evaluated these methods well after their implementation and without consideration for how information campaigns about them might alter voter behavior. Voter mobilization research shows that impersonal communications produce little-to-no effect on turnout. But we know much less about how mobilization might influence changes in the method of voting. Using a field experiment during the 2010 midterm primary and general elections in Maryland, we demonstrate that e-mail messages with concise subject lines that appeal to relevant reference groups combined with an easy-to-use electronic absentee ballot delivery system, increase the likelihood that overseas voters will use a new technology when they participate in elections. Our findings have scholarly and practical implications for election reform, campaign communications, and voter mobilization.