It’s National Voter Education Week, and election officials across the United States are working to get people registered to vote by the deadlines for the November midterm elections. Those deadlines vary by state, ranging from this week to Election Day itself. This year the effort is especially challenging, given new election laws and an epidemic of voter misinformation.
Our research looked into how local election officials can most effectively inform and encourage prospective voters, help voters to cast valid ballots, and maybe even give Americans more confidence that their ballots will be counted accurately.
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In Florida, Facebook postings boost voter registration
Most local election officials enjoy educating voters and see voter education as a key part of their responsibilities, according to survey research. We wanted to understand whether those efforts to educate voters actually have an effect, resulting in more registered voters and more ballots successfully cast. To conduct our research, we collected data on local election officials’ online and offline voter education efforts and then measured the results.
In one study, we looked at the 2020 Facebook posts of Florida county election offices in which they outlined their voter registration education efforts. We also examined counties where election officials reported placing ads in newspapers, usually announcing upcoming registration deadlines; visited community groups like seniors, disabled people, and racial and ethnic minorities; and trained groups to conduct voter registration drives. In counties where election officials reported they had engaged in any one of these activities, successful registration rates increased by about half a percent, compared with counties that did not.
Further, we found that for every four additional posts on Facebook, 2020 voter registrations increased by 0.1 percent. The impact may appear small, but it is significant considering the limited options voters had to become informed about voter registration in person during the early months of the pandemic.
We believe this is the first evidence of election officials’ use of social media shaping voter behavior. These Facebook postings also encouraged more voters to register online, suggesting that the combination of online reminders and online registration can increase registration rates.
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Facebook posts helped voters submit successful mail-in ballots in North Carolina
In another study, we examined whether election officials could reduce the proportion of mail-in ballots that get rejected, which happens more often than with ballots cast in person. Rejections may happen because voters mail their ballots too late to be counted, or because they make mistakes such as not signing the return envelope correctly, or at all, as required.
To study election officials’ vote-by-mail education efforts, we examined what North Carolina election officials shared on Facebook between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30, 2020. We then looked at the state’s records of mail voters broken down by method of voting — whether they delivered the ballot by mail or in person — and by status — whether it was accepted or rejected during the 2020 election. Comparing the two, we found that in counties where local election officials prioritized information about casting mail ballots on their Facebook content, mail ballots were more likely to be accepted.
In other words, voter education mattered; voters in these counties were more likely to return a correct mail ballot. That was even true for groups especially likely to see their mail ballots rejected, like young voters and racial and ethnic minority voters.
How likely is it that your mail-in ballot won’t get counted?
Why does voter education matter?
Our research suggests that when election officials educate voters they help lower the “cost” of voting itself. Political scientists consider voting “costly” because of the multiple steps and pieces of information voters need to successfully register and cast a ballot that will count. By offering clear answers to the question “What do I need to do to vote?” election officials can make voting easier and ultimately improve voters’ success.
And yet less than half of local election officials have any kind of presence on social media platforms, which especially limits their ability to reach young voters. Moreover, strong majorities of local election officials say they do not have enough resources to dedicate to voter education, although they enjoy the work and see it as a key part of their responsibilities.
Of course, they have also been facing violent threats, as former president Donald Trump and other political figures keep claiming falsely that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Those threats may limit election officials’ willingness and ability reach out to educate voters.
That’s too bad, since our ongoing research suggests that when state election officials invest in voter education, they may actually bolster confidence in ballot-counting at the personal, local, state and national levels. We suspect by improving voter understanding, such education also encourages voter confidence. Voters who have positive voting experiences are more likely to feel confident that ballots are being counted accurately.
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Mara Suttmann-Lea (@Mara_Suttmann) is an expert in election administration and an assistant professor of American politics at Connecticut College.
Thessalia (Lia) Merivaki (@liamerivaki) is an expert in election administration and voting behavior, an assistant professor in American politics at Mississippi State University, and author of “The Administration of Voter Registration: Expanding the Electorate Across and Within the States” (Springer Nature, 2020).