Political advertising and voter turnout

Television advertising is the primary method by which candidates reach voters in the United States, yet empirical evidence of its effect on voter participation is inconclusive. Comparing neighboring counties within a state assigned to different television markets, I find that aggregate advertising had no effect on voter turnout in the 2000, 2004, or 2008 U.S. presidential elections, even allowing for substantial measurement error. I compare this estimation strategy to other methods recently adopted in the political science literature, and highlight the advantages of this approach.