Donald P. Green is J.W. Burgess Professor of Political Science at Columbia University.

Alan S. Gerber is Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University and Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies.

Both authors are pioneers in the experimental study of voter turnout and have written widely on public opinion and elections.

Green and Gerber have studied turnout for years. Their findings, based on dozens of controlled experiments done as part of actual campaigns, are summarized in . . . Get Out the Vote, which is bound to become a bible for politicians and activists of all stripes.

Get Out the Vote shatters conventional wisdom about GOTV.

Green and Gerber have provided a valuable resource for grassroots campaigns across the spectrum.

Green and Gerber's book represents important innovations in the study of turnout.

Get Out the Vote! is the rare book that manages to package cutting-edge social science on a keenly important topic in a completely approachable manner for all audiences. I've used this book for courses from beginning undergraduate lectures to graduate seminars. Some students are fascinated by the mechanics of campaigns and the range of different voter mobilization techniques examined. Some are struck by the inferential advantages of the field experiments that Green and Gerber champion. All appreciate the economical, non-technical presentation. And, the handful who have gone on to work on campaigns or run for office always tell me they consulted Get Out the Vote! during their races.

I have adopted this book as required reading for my upper division campaigns and elections classes since it was first published in 2004. In the absence of careful monitoring by campaign management of the kind spelled out in this book, vendors of voter outreach services have every incentive to lie, exaggerate, and over promise. Reading Green and Gerber, students learn about the importance of measurement, monitoring and testing of all campaign efforts. They are also taught a more general and very sobering lesson of adult life: you can go to work every morning, thinking your efforts matter, when they really don't. And that's why careful measurement and testing are so important.

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Pub date: 2023-11-08

Length: 246 pages