Flyers use peer pressure to promote voting

Voters have received brochure after brochure from campaigns and organizations urging them to vote for a candidate, issue or to vote in general.

Some brochures frame their opponents as the most evil person in the world, or they paint an issue on the ballot as the key solution to solve a broken system. But another tactic to engage potential voters is peer pressure, which in some cases could be construed as intimidation.

One flyer reads: “Who you vote for is private, but whether you vote is a matter of public record. We will be reviewing public records after the election to determine whether or not you joined your neighbors in voting.”

Another flyer, printed with the addressed individual’s name, says, “According to public records for this address, you were a voter in one of the last five general elections. That makes you a below average voter. Meanwhile, your neighbors usually vote in every election.”

Peer pressure tactics

The threat of public shaming and peer pressure are alternative tactics to get people to vote in Nevada, but they are nothing new, political experts say.

David Damore, professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at UNLV, said that during the 2016 GOP primary, Ted Cruz’ campaign used a similar tactic that drew criticism when mailers read: “ELECTION ALERT: VOTER VIOLATION,” “PUBLIC RECORD” and “FURTHER ACTION NEEDED.”

The idea stems from a 2008 study published by political scientists at Yale that looked at the effects of social pressures on turnout, Damore said.

It involved a large-scale field experiment of several hundred thousand registered voters and used a series of mailings to gauge the effects. Substantially higher turnout was observed among the participants who received mailings promising to publicize their voter turnout to their neighbors, according to Cambridge University Press.

The scientists concluded that, “although heavy-handed requests sometimes encounter reactance, on balance people tend to comply with social norms when others are believed to be watching in order to avoid shame and social ostracism.”

In 2012, organizations on both the left and the right sent mailings that included public voting records and “report cards” of registered voters in key states, according to Reuters.

Political apps such as VoteWithMe and OutVote have used peer pressure to get people to vote by sharing people’s voting histories, according to the New York Times. The apps allowed users to access the voting information of contacts on their cell phones, however neither are available on both iPhone and Samsung app stores.

Varying quality

Some of the strategies can be clumsy, while others can be effective and nuanced, said Kenneth Miller, an associate professor of political science at UNLV.

“When these are done well, they work. … But if you get the tone or messaging wrong, it can sound overbearing or intimidating,” Miller said.

Miller is not aware of many criticisms over the tactic since Cruz’ campaign used those mailers. In Nevada in 2016, some people took to Twitter to complain about getting sent a voter report card that was inaccurate.

America Votes, a progressive organization that sent the mailer about reviewing public records to determine whether or not a voter joined their neighbors in casting a ballot, said in a statement to the Review-Journal that there is a lot at stake in the election.

“We encourage everyone to make their voice heard. Voters should make a plan to return their ballots before Election Day on November 8th,” America Votes Communications Manager Emerson Morrow said in a statement to the Review-Journal.

Riley Sutton, executive director of New Day Nevada, which paid for the flyer about the voter report card, said in a statement that the election is important for working families, and the organization is spending millions of dollars on “Get Out The Vote” efforts to help working families understand their choices and how to vote.

“It is crucial for working families to turn out for this election and we will continue every effort to make sure they know what is at stake and encourage Nevadans to make their voices heard,” Sutton said.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on Twitter.