Voter Mobilization and the Obama Victory

As with the other presidential elections from this decade, the 2008 election was followed by considerable speculation as to how new efforts to mobilize voters affected the eventual outcome. Although the conventional wisdom implies that “Democrats benefit from higher turnout,” previous research in po...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American politics research 2010-03, Vol.38 (2), p.211-232
Main Authors: Osborn, Tracy, McClurg, Scott D., Knoll, Benjamin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Candidates
Citizen participation
Democratic parties
Election results
Elections
Electoral campaigning
Electoral results
Mobilization
Obama, Barack
Political analysis
Political behaviour
Political campaigns
Political mobilization
Political Participation
Political parties
Presidential elections
Presidents
U.S.A
United States of America
Voter behavior
Voter Turnout
Voting Behavior
Voting turnout
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Summary:As with the other presidential elections from this decade, the 2008 election was followed by considerable speculation as to how new efforts to mobilize voters affected the eventual outcome. Although the conventional wisdom implies that “Democrats benefit from higher turnout,” previous research in political science demonstrates that such a conclusion applies to actual election results inconsistently. In this article, we outline the difficulties involved with assessing turnout effects within a particular election and proceed to test the hypothesis that the Obama campaign benefited from higher turnout using three different methods. The evidence suggests that the Obama campaign benefited substantially from voter turnout, particularly in comparison with the Kerry campaign in 2004, yet they also were successful in changing the minds of already mobilized voters. Although various data difficulties suggest the presence of some bias in our estimates, the consistency of the results across tests supports the general conclusion.
ISSN:1532-673X
1552-3373
DOI:10.1177/1532673X09359131