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Youth text messaging and voting research

I was completing some research on text messaging today when I stumbled upon a couple interesting studies.

We all know that text messaging use is highest amongst the younger demos, although adoption in other groups is growing as well.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 60% of teens send text messages daily.

And Ypulse:
Teens and young adults use text messaging more than any other demographic. People ages 13-24 send and receive the most - more than 50 messages per week - while half of all survey respondents use text messaging at least once a week.

There was a study in 2006 on the impact of text messaging reminders and voting:

The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project and Working Assets, in cooperation with researchers from the University of Michigan and Princeton University, recently released a study demonstrating the effectiveness of using text / SMS messages to mobile phones to mobilize young voters in the November 2006 elections. The study found that text message reminders to new voters increased an individual’s likelihood of voting by 4.2 percentage points.

In a follow up survey, 59% of recipients reported that the reminder was helpful, versus only 23% who found it bothersome.

In regards to the above statistic (23% found that found the reminder bothersome), I’m curious to know how the phone numbers were collected. If the users opted in to the reminder, as they should have in order to receive the text message, then it should have been a lower number, since, after all, they requested to be reminded. There could have been several factors that impacted that number, depending on how long there was between subscribing and receiving the reminder message.

On the flip side, for the 23% that found bothersome, the reminder might have been enough to disconnect them from voting as well, or from voting for any candidate that was associated with the campaign. Something candidates will need to pay close attention to as the election approaches.

There is also a table that compares the cost to acquire a voter:

Comparison With Other Mobilization Tactics
Tactic, Mobilization Effect, Cost / Vote Generated
Text/SMS Messages, 4-5%, $1.56
“Quality” Phone Calls, 4-5%, $20
Door-to-Door Canvassing, 7-9%, ~$30
Leafletting, 1.2%, $32
Direct Mail, ~0.6%, $67

I’m interested to see how text messaging plays out with the next election around the corner.

Technorati Tags: teen, youth, vote, election, text, sms, mobile