What Do Voters Need to Know? Testing the Role of Cognitive Information in Asian American Voter Mobilization

Previous field experiments have found that indirect methods, particularly direct mail, are not effective in increasing voter turnout. Most of the mail used in these experiments provided procedural information regarding voting and a message encouraging the voter to turn out. Yet, in his review of efforts to increase voting, Berinsky (2005) concluded that it was the cognitive costs of voting-the effort needed to formulate political opinions-that constituted the greatest barrier to voter turnout. This suggests it may be important to consider the type of information being provided when examining direct mail efforts. To test this proposition, we present evidence from field experiments conducted by two Asian-American-serving community organizations during the June and November 2006 elections. We find that the type of information provided does not increase direct mail's effectiveness. Yet unlike previous experiments, we find that phonebanking does have a statistically significant, positive effect on Asian American voter turnout.