| This study assesses efforts made by a non-partisan non-profit organization, the Advocacy Alliance Center of Texas (AACT), to engage South Texas youth in the democratic political process. Specifically, the question it asks and tries to answer is whether activities associated with a Get Out The Vote (GOTV) campaign aimed at 18/19 year-old high school seniors can raise their voter turnout rate above what it might otherwise be without intervention. The research adopts a quasi-experimental design that analyzes data on 4435 students produced from a natural non-randomized experiment where some schools and students did and other schools and students did not participate in campaign activities leading up to the Primary and General elections of 2012. Findings indicate that "treatments" targeting high school seniors can be effective in raising voter turnout in this population, sometimes by several multiples, more so for General than for Primary elections. Treatment effects vary, however. A one-day, large-scale regional youth "Summit," a celebration integrating voter registration, educational presentations and entertainment seemed to have greater effect on turnout than in-school registration and presentations. How much of the gain stems from program effect and how much from self-selection is uncertain, however. |
