ISSUE BRIEF FROM
PRIORITIES FOR
Closing the Turnout Gap Lessons from an Intervention to Increase Black Voter Turnout in Boston’s 2021 Mayoral Election LEAD AUTHOR
Steph Domond, Fellow at Priorities for Progress
In 2021, Policy For Progress (PFP) performed a series of polls investigating reasons for relatively low turnout among Black voters in the preliminary stage of the city’s 2021 mayoral election. Using the opportunity of Boston’s two-stage mayoral elections, PFP then conducted a randomized control trial (RCT) to test the impact of receiving a mailer and personalized text message on likelihood to vote in the final stage of the same mayoral election among a randomized population of 35,500 Black voters in Boston who had voted in the 2020 Presidential election but not the 2019 municipal preliminary election.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Steph Domond is a Research Fellow at Priorities For Progress, where his work focuses on voter engagement. Prior to his work with PFP, he conducted policy and political analysis for a wide range of organizations in California and Massachusetts, including internships with the Gavin Newsom for Governor, John Chiang for Governor, and Elizabeth Warren for President campaigns.
ABOUT PRIORITIES FOR PROGRESS Priorities For Progress (PFP) analyzes and engages the Massachusetts electorate to prioritize pragmatic, results-oriented policies. PFP conducts polling to determine the Commonwealth’s political reality, informs the public about evidence-based policies, and supports leaders to create lasting change. PFP has been active in Massachusetts politics since 2018. LEAN MORE PrioritiesForProgress.org
PFP found that a mailer and personalized text message had a statistically significant, positive effect on final-election turnout among voters who had not voted in the preliminary election.
Twitter @PrioritiesMass CONTACT Please contact Policy Advisor John Griffin: john@prioritiesforprogress.org We welcome feedback on this report as well as ideas for future research and advocacy.
Orange text denotes hyperlinks
PolicyForProgress.org | Closing the Turnout Gap | 1