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Polls and Elections : Campaign Field Offices and Voter Mobilization in 2012
Author(s) -
Weinschenk Aaron C.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/psq.12213
Subject(s) - turnout , presidential system , voter turnout , political science , field (mathematics) , public administration , presidential campaign , politics , mobilization , presidential election , voting , political economy , law , sociology , mathematics , pure mathematics
During the last several presidential elections, much attention has been paid to campaign field offices. A number of analyses have investigated the impact of field offices on vote choice, but there have been very few investigations of whether and to what extent campaign field offices influence voter turnout. Using data from the 2012 election, I examine the impact of Obama and Romney field offices on county‐level turnout. I find that the presence of campaign field offices in counties across the United States increased turnout by a small amount. The results presented here add to the literature on campaign effects by showing that field offices—an increasingly important component of modern presidential campaigning—can influence levels of political engagement.