Mobilizing Maryland: a look into the voting tendencies of students at the University of Maryland

Abstract

Team VOTE-CP, Voice of the Electorate – Collegiate Participation, studied voting behaviors of undergraduate students at the University of Maryland. The team conducted focus groups and campus-wide surveys to gather information about barriers to voting as well as students’ history and motivations for voting. The resulting quantitative data helped determine a mobilization tactic that focused on distributing candidate information and absentee ballots during the 2008 Presidential Election to treatment and control groups. Statistically non-significant data gives no concrete indication of the tactic’s effectiveness; however, the data from the experiment will provide information and recommendations to aid in further research regarding youth voting and to increase voter turnout at the University of Maryland and other universities in the future.