Voter Mobilization: 6 Key Strategies For A High Voter Turnout

In the last 2-3 weeks of an election, campaigns shift gears. Political campaigns use different voter mobilization techniques and tactics to turn potential voters into voters.

The question is no longer “How do I appeal to voters?”, but “How do I get supporters to the polls? How to get out the vote?” 

And at that point, it’s a numbers game. You need a certain number of votes to win. What can you do to get them?

The answer is perfecting your voter mobilization process and studying voting behavior.

What is voter mobilization?

Put simply, voter mobilization is the process of getting registered, supportive voters to actually cast a ballot. It moves people from “I plan to vote” to “I voted.” It isn’t persuasion and it isn’t registration. It’s the execution phase of a voter engagement program, used once your supporter universe is defined.

Voter mobilization vs. GOTV

The two terms are often used interchangeably, and plenty of campaigns do exactly that. There is a useful distinction, though. Get out the vote (GOTV) is the umbrella: the full program of final-days outreach, which covers both mobilizing known supporters and last-minute persuasion of soft ones. Voter mobilization is the execution layer inside it, focused on confirmed supporters who are likely to vote.

For the full program structure, see our complete GOTV strategy guide.

Voter mobilization vs. voter registration

Voter registration is a prerequisite for mobilization, not part of it. Registration gets eligible citizens onto the rolls. Mobilization gets registered supporters to the polls.

The two often run side by side, especially in states with same-day registration, but the lists and messages are different. Registration targets eligible non-voters. Mobilization targets registered supporters who haven’t confirmed a voting plan. A registration message sent to someone who is already registered wastes a contact, and a mobilization message sent to someone who isn’t registered goes nowhere.

Is it effective?

There are four key factors to consider when estimating the effectiveness of a voter mobilization effort and get out the vote.

• Which voters are you contacting?

Supporters are more likely to be influenced by GOTV messages than undecided voters.

• How are you contacting them?

Door to door canvassing nets the highest increase in voter turnout, at 4.3 percent.

• Who is speaking to them?

Volunteer-led phone banking/phone calls are 2.1% more effective than hiring agents to make calls.

• What are you saying to them?

The Progressive Turnout project sent over 87,000 social pressure mailers to voters in 2018 and cited an 8% increase in voter turnout.

We expand on how you can reach out to voters to maximize the success of your voter mobilization campaigns in the strategies section.

Why is voter mobilization important?

Demographics are an indicator of the likelihood of a person to vote:

• Caucasians and African Americans are more likely to vote than Asians or Latinos. (by around 10 percent.)
• The old (60+) are 30% more likely to turn out than the young (18 – 29.)
• Post-graduates are over 40% more likely to vote than those without a high school education.

Concentrating on turning out the unlikelier voter demographics can quickly shift the tide in an election.

Why is it important for campaigns?

In small, local elections, the results could go either way based on a few hundreds of votes.

There’s even a Wikipedia page dedicated to documenting instances of close races. In over 270 races from around the world, an election could have gone either way based on a handful of votes.

The tactic you choose also changes the numbers. Door-to-door canvassing lifts turnout by about 4.3 percentage points, phone banking by 3 to 4 points (based on Yale’s GOTV experiments), and peer-to-peer texting by roughly 3 points. In a district decided by 1,200 votes, a well-run program across 10,000 identified supporters can be the difference.

Context matters too. A meta-analysis in Electoral Studies found that the effect of mobilization tactics shrinks by 33 to 76 percent in high-salience elections compared to low-salience ones. In a presidential general, most people who intend to vote follow through on their own. In a primary, city council race or school board election, mobilization does most of the work.

Why is it important for voters?

Elected officials are more likely to take note of the concerns of the demographics with the highest voter turnout.

Similarly, policymakers can afford to ignore groups that don’t turn up at the polls. In cases where these groups are affected by voter suppression, this creates a cycle of oppression.

Organizing vs. mobilizing

If voter mobilization is the end goal for your campaign, organizing is the fuel that gets you there.

The success of your voter mobilization efforts depends on how much effort was put into organizing in the initial part of the campaign with phone banking or text messages, i.e.:

• Building your supporter base
• Raising and allocating funds
• Experimenting with messaging 
• Building relationships with influencers and communities

Knowing which stage your campaign is at (organizing or mobilizing) will inform the tactics you use to engage supporters. Luckily, an election doesn’t leave much room for ambiguity. 

Mobilization starts 2-3 weeks before election day; Organizing is everything before that point, from the time you start your campaign.

If you’re in the organizing stages of campaigning (and the major part of your campaign should be that), read our post on digital organizing tactics.

Once you have built your base and gained momentum, you mobilize using phone banking. So, what is the most effective way to boost voter mobilization?

Let’s look at some ways you might put voter mobilization into practice.

Voter mobilization strategies

With over 200 years of history behind electioneering in the USA, no campaign has to go in completely blind. What get-out-the-vote tactics have proven to be most successful? What is the most effective way to boost voter mobilization?

Note that for GOTV, one successful contact with many voters is more impactful than multiple contacts with fewer voters. Keep that in mind when implementing the following tactics in your outreach.

1. Avoid mobilizing opposition voters
2. Work with local/established organizations
3. Use research back mobilization channels
4. Personal interactions and deep canvassing
5. Use social pressure
6. Help voters make a plan

Avoid mobilizing opposition voters

This would seem pretty obvious. No campaign wants to accidentally bolster the voter base of an opponent (and waste effort doing so). 

But how do you make sure?

Targeting is key.

Initial voter outreach from your campaign in the organizing phase will focus on getting supporter-level data from voters. 

Segment confirmed supporters to your GOTV universe—the voters your campaign will canvass in the last days of the election.

Some campaigns may calculate that turning out their existing voter base will net them a victory. For others, persuasion efforts targeted toward undecided voters will be necessary to push them over the win number. Read more on how you can persuade opposition and swing voters.

Work with local/established organizations

If your campaign is attempting voter mobilization with little to no experience, consider partnering with groups that specialize in activating voters.

Here are just a few examples:

• Indivisible
• Swing Left
• Poor People’s Campaign
• America Votes
• Woke Vote
• Let America Vote
• HeadCount

Often, these organizations are run by young people, people of color, and other marginalized groups in the election process.

This is important if your campaign depends on turning these marginalized groups out to vote and have their say by showing how your elected officials can help.

For example, Indivisible has chapters across the country focused on flipping House and Senate seats. They do this by organizing canvassing campaigns for local candidates.

Use research-backed voter mobilization channels

Robocalls, email campaigns, and online ads have been shown to have little to no direct impact on voter turnout.

What channels have an impact on voter mobilization?

1. Canvassing. Face-to-face conversations are the most effective form of voter contact your campaign can undertake. This should be your priority when it comes to voter outreach for GOTV.
2. Phonebanking. Your best bet after door canvassing is phone canvassing. This allows you to run distributed campaigns allowing volunteers to participate from anywhere, with the added advantage of being able to talk to more people in a shorter period of time.
3. Texting. Peer-to-peer texting is a relatively recent mode of voter contact, adding roughly 3 percentage points of turnout per contact. It lets volunteers reach more supporters per hour than phone banking and hold two-way conversations, like asking whether someone has a voting plan and replying with their polling location. Use it to extend a program built on personal contact, not to replace it. Digital-only programs consistently underperform programs that include at least one high-contact touch. For combining channels, see our guide to tools to get out the vote.

Personal interactions and deep canvassing

We’ve talked about channels you can use for voter mobilization. 

What about the messenger?

Another data point we can observe from the graph above is that volunteer-led phone banking does much better in increasing voter turnout compared to commercial phone banking (using hired agents). It’s because personal contact has a positive effect on voter turnout.

Local volunteers can appeal to voters by:

• Highlighting the commonality in where they are from (the same neighborhood or town)
• In the case of marginalized groups, highlighting the commonality in age, income bracket or ethnicity
• Sharing their own personal story with a candidate or campaign during phone banking

When running persuasion efforts before a GOTV campaign, tactics that engage voters in two-way conversations, such as deep canvassing and personal contact, are shown to be effective.

Next, let’s talk about the message itself.

Use social pressure

Gentle social pressure can convince people to vote.

According to studies, emphasizing a high expected turnout in your messaging boosts voter turnout. The opposite is true if you approach voters by talking about low turnout rates.

Messaging that asks citizens to “be a voter” is found to be more effective than simply asking them to vote.

If the supporter has been a frequent voter in the past, they might not need the encouragement, but simply appreciating them for setting an example for the neighborhood can go a long way in keeping them dedicated.

Read Next: Our Complete A-Z Guide To Boost Your Electioneering Efforts

Help voters make a plan

Helping even one eligible voter to vote can make a tremendous impact.

Some voters may know of presidential elections but not be completely aware of the local elections. Having voters verbalize a plan to vote with a volunteer makes it much more likely for them to show up at the polls. This works even better for young people who stay away from their families. This could even start from helping with voter registration in states that allow same-day registration.

Have volunteers ask leading questions during phone banking:

• Can I help you with voter registration?
• Can we expect you to vote on election day?
• What time do you plan to vote?
• Are you aware of your polling location?
• Do you need help getting there?

Here’s a mock interaction between a volunteer and a voter by Resistance School that shows how a typical door knock is done.

Voter mobilization examples by organization type

The core mechanics don’t change: identify supporters, make high-contact outreach, confirm voting plans and remove logistical barriers. What changes is the channel mix, the relationship behind the contact and the timeline.

Political campaigns

A campaign’s mobilization program starts with a modeled supporter universe in the voter file. Supporters are ranked by vote propensity, and contact is sequenced by that score.

A typical program makes three to four contact attempts per high-value supporter in the final two weeks: a canvass knock to confirm a voting plan, a phone bank call to check transportation or polling location, and a reminder text in the 48 hours before election day. The script assumes support. “Can we count on you to vote on Tuesday?” does more work in the final days than another reason to vote for the candidate. Your job at this point is logistics and accountability.

Nonprofits and civic organizations

Nonpartisan groups use the same core approach without a partisan voter file. Their list usually comes from their own donors, volunteers or program participants.

The message focuses on the value of participating, plus making logistics easy: polling location, voting hours, same-day registration rules and absentee options. Relational phone banking and texting work well here because the supporter already knows the organization, so the outreach feels like a continuation of that relationship rather than a cold ask. For a deeper walkthrough, see our voter mobilization playbook for nonprofits and advocacy organizations.

Labor unions

Union programs typically run in two layers: a central team that provides lists, scripts and tools, and member leaders who contact their coworkers directly.

That peer contact is what makes them effective. A call from a steward the member has worked beside for years carries more weight than a call from a campaign volunteer, and the message can focus on issues members care about, like contracts, workplace safety and wages.

Faith-based and community organizations

Here, mobilization runs on trusted leadership. It looks less like a phone bank and more like a series of direct conversations: announcements to the congregation, one-on-one follow-ups after services and group rides on election day.

Contact volume is lower than a campaign’s, but conversion is high because the relationship is deep. These programs also start earlier, often weeks before election day, and keep contact going through the final weekend.

Fighting voter suppression

Voter suppression is the flipside of voter mobilization and affects voting behavior negatively.

Voter suppression is any legal or illegal attempt to prevent voters from exercising their right to have a say in the electoral process.

This is often designed to disproportionately affect groups based on their income, race, age, or gender.

In what forms does voter suppression occur?

• Strict voter ID requirements – Over 30 states have considered requiring a government-issued ID to register to vote (an estimated 11 percent of citizens lack such an ID.)
• Purging of voter rolls – The discounting of legitimate votes citing voter fraud.
• Gerrymandering – Drawing electoral lines to artificially favor one party over another.
• Felony disenfranchisement – Citizens with felony convictions have their right to vote revoked in many states, even after serving time.
• Limitations to early/absentee voting – The ability of voters to cast their votes early varies from state to state.
• Disinformation – Channels like social media are used to spread false information in regards to voting.

In some of these instances of voter suppression, your campaign can help by keeping voters informed.

How can you combat voter suppression?

• Help communities overcome voting barriers by sharing resources like vote.org and 866ourvote.org, which offer registration and ballot deadlines, tools to request absentee ballots, and polling station locations.
• For former felons, this website lets them know if they can restore their right to vote with a quick survey – https://campaignlegal.org/restoreyourvote 
• Report suspected cases of election fraud to appropriate agencies, such as the U.S. Election Assistance Commission

To summarize the steps you can take to mobilize voters:

1. Target likely supporters when mobilizing. 
2. Use the most direct channels available to you.
3. Get the help of local volunteers in phone banking or texting campsigns to get out the vote.
4. Use social pressure and emphasize the importance of voting.
5. Help voters make a plan for election day.
6. Keep them informed to combat voter suppression.

CallHub offers calling and texting tools to help your phone banking or texting campaigns reach supporters. Learn more about our software for political campaigns.

Frequently asked questions

What is voter mobilization in AP Gov?

In AP Government, voter mobilization refers to the organized efforts of parties, campaigns, interest groups and advocacy organizations to increase voter participation. It’s the same concept practitioners use, but the course treats it as a political science topic, alongside registration requirements, turnout rates and party strategy, rather than as a program to run.

What is the difference between voter mobilization and voter turnout?

Turnout is the outcome. Mobilization is the effort that produces it. Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot. Mobilization is the organized contact, outreach and logistics that close the gap between registered supporters and ballots actually cast. For benchmarks, see what is voter turnout.

When does voter mobilization happen in the campaign cycle?

In the final phase of a campaign, roughly the last two to three weeks before election day, though longer programs start up to four weeks out. Earlier phases focus on registration, organizing and persuasion. Mobilization begins once your supporter universe is defined and the goal shifts from growing it to activating it. Our GOTV timeline breaks it down week by week.

How do you measure voter mobilization success?

The main metric is turnout among the supporters you contacted: what percentage of your targeted list actually voted? Secondary metrics include voting-plan confirmation rate, contact rate and pledge conversion rate. After the election, match your contact records against voter file data to calculate the lift for each tactic and list segment.

Can you do voter mobilization with a small team or budget?

Yes. A small team working a focused list of 500 to 1,000 high-propensity supporters will usually beat a larger team spreading outreach across a broad list. List quality and contact quality matter more than volume. Start with personal contact for your highest-priority supporters, then use texting to follow up with anyone the phone bank missed. Our GOTV for small campaigns guide covers this in more depth, including a free tool stack.

What’s the most cost-effective voter mobilization tactic?

Peer-to-peer texting gets the most supporter contacts per volunteer hour, which makes it the most scalable option for teams with limited paid staff. Canvassing produces the biggest turnout lift per contact but needs the most resources. The most cost-effective programs combine them: canvass your highest-priority supporters, text the rest of the list, and follow up with a phone call in the final 48 hours for anyone who hasn’t responded.

Mukundan Sivaraj

Mukundan (that's me!) is a writer at CallHub, an outreach platform that connects nonprofits with their supporters through voice and text messages. Mukundan’s focus on nonprofit technology and communication helps him show nonprofits, big and small, how technology can help elevate their cause.