Book Review: Get Out the Vote

I recently read through Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout by Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2004). While there are a number of campaign guides out there, this one looks at empirical evidence on the effectiveness of five "get out the vote" tactics: door-to-door canvassing, leaflets, direct mail, phone banks, and electronic mail. The authors give a price per vote for each tactic and a ranked list of variations on the theme to show what specific actions bring in votes and what ones don't.

Since the book was published in 2004 it doesn't discuss the 2004 elections or the Howard Dean use of the Internet, but it is an interesting read nonetheless.