One of the biggest issues for a political campaign is how do you get your base out to vote. Two researchers took a look at this problem and looked at what effect phone calls had on getting citizens out to vote. The study targeted over 150,000 Pennsylvanian registered voters in 2008 who had only voted once between 2000 and 2008.
Would-be voters received one of three kinds of phone call: either they were encouraged to vote and reminded of their duty; they were asked whether they intended to vote; or they were asked more detailed questions about when, where etc they planned to vote. A control group received no phone call.
The news is that the “self-prophecy effect” — just asking a voter if they were going to vote — was not replicated. If a voter answered when and where they were going to vote, voting increased by 4.1%. If a voter was the sole voter in the household, voting increased by 9.1%.