Canvassing Mobilizes and Increases Vote Share: Evidence from a Local Election in Seattle

Nicholas Ottone

No u47s3_v1, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: A long line of research has shown that door-to-door canvassing is a potent campaign tactic for increasing turnout and, in some cases, vote share. More recent work has theorized, however, that canvassing effects are largest in low-salience elections without party cues and concentrated among occasional voters canvassed closer to Election Day. In this research note, I test these theoretical expectations by examining the effect of canvassing in a February local election in Seattle for a housing-related ballot measure. Using a novel geo-coded dataset of seventy doorknocking campaigns over three months, I find that voters more proximate to canvassing operations were more likely to vote and that proximate precincts had a slightly higher vote share for the targeted ballot measure. Moreover, consistent with recent theorizing, I find that turnout effects were concentrated among targeted Democrats canvassed soon before the election.

Date: 2026-08-22
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:u47s3_v1

DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/u47s3_v1

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