What is GOTV?

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GOTV stands for "get out the vote" and signifies a concerted effort to register voters and increase voter turnout during elections. These efforts can be done with the intent of increasing general voter turnout without regard to political leaning or can be organized by political groups aiming to increase turnout among voters who support a particular candidate or cause.

Two types

Get out the vote refers to two distinct kinds of campaigning:

1. Voter registration drives not specific to an election outcome.
2. Efforts to increase turnout among supporters for a particular election outcome.

Non-election-specific GOTV efforts

GOTV efforts are not always aligned with getting supporters of a candidate or cause to the polls. Some are aimed at simply getting more people to vote regardless of their political leaning. According to Nonprofit Vote, a guide to nonpartisan election activity, such GOTV efforts typically encourage people to vote with voter registration tables in the community or through some of the communication techniques described below. These activities can be performed by partisan entities, like political parties or campaigns, nonpartisan groups, and nonprofits.

Effectiveness

Non-election-oriented GOTV efforts can also encompass general encouragements to vote aimed at those who are already registered. In 1998, Alan Gerber and Donald Green conducted an experiment testing the effect of nonpartisan GOTV leaflets encouraging registered voters in Connecticut to vote. Their study found that "a nonpartisan stimulus, like the printed encouragement cards, may be successful in retaining participation of unaffiliated individuals who voted in past elections. However, it may not be nearly as effective in changing the behavior of those who do not regularly vote."

Election-specific GOTV efforts

GOTV also refers to a coordinated effort by a political party or campaign to mobilize voters who are likely to cast a ballot in support of their candidate or candidates. These efforts also include working to get nonvoters who can be persuaded to cast a vote. According to Local Victory, a resource for candidates and campaigns, GOTV efforts are specifically oriented towards supporter turnout. Joe Garecht of Local Victory writes,

“

The goal of your get out the vote campaign is to identify who your supporters are, and get as many of them as possible to actually go vote. The GOTV team is not responsible for persuading people to support your candidate - that is the job of the rest of your campaign structure. The get out the vote campaign need only identify who has ALREADY been persuaded to support your candidate, and then motivate those supporters to go vote.

”

Writing for Slate in 2012, Sasha Issenberg described the GOTV activities of a presidential campaign, noting that the campaign's focus shifts in the fall from registering voters to increasing the likelihood that supporters will go to the polls. Issenberg wrote:

“

Such get-out-the-vote operations include pre-election reminders, providing information on polling-place locations and absentee-ballot protocols, and, increasingly, psychological nudges informed by the behavioral sciences—all delivered over personalized channels like mail, phones, or in-person visits. Indiscriminately subjecting voters who might support your opponent to such motivators is considered an unsustainable risk. As a result, field organizers typically move a voter into a so-called GOTV universe only if he or she has told a caller or canvasser that they are a supporter, or statistical models predict they are likely to go your way.

”

The goal of such efforts is to ensure that the maximum number of supporters for a party or candidate get to the polls on Election Day.

Common GOTV activities

According to the Brookings Institution, GOTV activities are more effective when they are more personal, but the most personal activities are the least cost-efficient. In the organization's book Get Out the Vote, authors Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber write:

“

the more personal the interaction between campaign and potential voter, the more it raises a person’s chances of voting. Door-to-door canvassing by enthusiastic volunteers is the gold-standard mobilization tactic; chatty, unhurried phone calls seem to work well, too. Automatically dialed, prerecorded GOTV phone calls, by contrast, are utterly impersonal and, evidently, wholly in effective at getting people to vote.

”

They conclude that any GOTV activity undertaken by a campaign manager must assess his or her "resources, goals, and political situation and then form a judgment about what tactics will produce the most votes at the lowest cost."

The five items below detail the most common GOTV activities a campaign or nonpartisan effort will engage. Included is a brief description of what each activity entails.

1. Canvassing: Canvassing involves going door-to-door and speaking with potential voters. Often, those canvassing will know ahead of time how likely the resident is to vote and for which candidate. This is considered the most personal type of GOTV activity, but it is also the least cost-efficient. According to Issenberg, door-to-door canvassing by dedicated volunteers was one reason Barack Obama's GOTV efforts were more successful during his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns.
2. Leaflets: Leaflets are left on doorsteps or in screen doors, but those walking door-to-door do not engage with residents. Rather, they leave a leaflet with information. According to Green and Gerber, one leaflet has a relatively low impact on voter turnout, but the ease of printing and distributing them can be "an attractive option when vast numbers of voters otherwise would receive no contact from a face-to-face canvassing campaign."
3. Direct mail: Mailing potential voters directly through the Postal Service is one of the most common GOTV tactics. According to Wellstone Action, a progressive campaign training organization, "Done right, direct mail is one of the most effective and efficient methods of direct voter contact with your target audience. For many smaller races, direct mail will be the only form of paid communication, since it’s a highly targeted and relatively inexpensive way to combine field strategy with your communications and paid media plan."
4. Phone calls: Phone calls are designed to "establish an authentic personal connection with voters." GOTV phone calls can be done either by volunteers or professional phone banks; they might also be messages recorded ahead of time. Phone banking has been in practice since 1968. Wally Clinton, who developed the modern political phone bank for Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign, told NPR in 2012 that the fundamentals of phone banking had not changed since then: "They had a list of names to call, which we provided. They had a message, which we provided. And the result of each telephone call was recorded."
5. Online efforts: Online GOTV efforts can take the form of mass emails or messaging through social media. According to Yale University's Institution for Social and Policy Studies, mass emails are akin to automated phone calls and are less effective. Yale does note that social media has the potential to mobilize GOTV efforts "by exerting strong social norms of participation within the network."

Nonprofit GOTV efforts

501(c)(3)

Certain nonprofit organizations, those designated 501(c)(3) educational organizations, may only engage in GOTV efforts so long as they are nonpartisan in nature. According to the IRS, if a voter registration drive or a GOTV effort is done in an educational manner without favoring or opposing a candidate or having the effect of favoring or opposing a candidate, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit can conduct GOTV activities. These activities can include registering voters, helping voters to the polls, publishing voter education guides, or conducting public forums on issues.

The PICO National Network is one 501(c)(3) organization that engages in GOTV efforts.

501(c)(4)

501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations are also called "social welfare organizations." The IRS does not consider direct or indirect political influence to be in the domain of promoting social welfare. However, a social welfare organization designated as a 501(c)(4) can engage in some political activity. Unlike the restrictions for 501(c)(3) organizations, 501(c)(4) organizations can legally participate in political activity in support of or opposition to candidates for office. These political activities cannot be the organization's primary activities and cannot be direct donations to a candidate for office or a candidate's committee.

The following organizations are examples of 501(c)(4) groups that engage in GOTV efforts:

• League of Women Voters
• New Era Colorado
• The New Florida Majority
• Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative
• New Virginia Majority