Vote-shaming mailer hits N.H. mailboxes
A direct-mail piece that attempts to shame Granite Staters into voting in tomorrow’s presidential primary is hitting mailboxes the day before the election.
“WHAT IF YOUR FRIENDS, YOUR NEIGHBORS, AND YOUR COMMUNITY KNEW WHETHER YOU VOTED?” the letter from the New Hampshire State Voter Program begins. The mailing, sent to a Seacoast-area undeclared voter, includes the recipient’s voting history for the last three elections and notifies him that the group will follow up after the election with an updated chart. “You and your friends, your neighbors, and other people you know will all know who voted and who did not vote,” it ominously warns:
Why do so many people fail to vote? We’ve been talking about the problem for years, but it only seems to get worse. This year, we’re taking a new approach. We’re sending this mailing to you, some of your friends, neighbors, colleagues at work and community members to make them aware of who does and does not vote.
This chart shows the names of some your friends, your neighbors, and other people you know, showing which have voted in the past. After the February 9th election, we plan to mail an updated chart. You and your friends, your neighbors, and other people you know will all know who voted and who did not vote.
The mailing is the result of 2008 research by political scientists that indicated you can increase voter turnout by threatening to make voting participation public. “As you ratchet up that social pressure, or the sense that other people are going to comply with a particular norm, we found that turnout increases dramatically,” political scientist Chris Larimer told Alaska Public Media.
The New Hampshire mailing reproduces the language used by the researchers that increased turnout by 8 to 9 percentage points, similar to what can be achieved through door-to-door canvassing.
It is unclear who paid for the mailing. A disclosure statement identifies the sponsor as “Public Policy Matters” but the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office has no listing for a political action committee or a business registered under that name. The return address lists a Manchester post office box.
The piece is a near-duplicate of a mailing Alaskans received before the 2014 general election from a group identified as the “Alaska State Voter Program.” Both mailings include the same all-caps introduction, virtually identical text, similar official-looking eagle logos and are enclosed in an envelope with a red arrow pointing to the inscription: “IMPORTANT TAXPAYER INFORMATION ENCLOSED.”
The Alaska mailing was sponsored by the Opportunity Alliance PAC, a political action committee funded primarily by John D. Bryan, an Oregon resident who has championed conservative causes including charter schools and educational choice.
Talking Points Memo reported Bryan claimed he knew nothing about the Alaskan vote-shaming letters. Opportunity Alliance PAC treasurer Cabell Hobbs told TPM that he was not involved in the group’s operations. He declined to disclose who was behind it. The PAC was terminated in 2015.
