A Healthy Democracy: How Healthcare Providers Get Patients Ready to Vote

• In Event: Interventions and Innovations That Impact Turnout and Voting

Abstract

Launched at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in 2019, the nonpartisan civic organization Vot-ER works in healthcare settings to increase voting registration and turnout within marginalized and underrepresented communities. Vot-ER has partnered with more than 700 health institutions across the US and shipped over 50,000 Healthy Democracy Kits to healthcare providers to promote discussions with patients about exercising their voting rights. Between July 2020 and November 2022, Vot-ER helped nearly 80,000 patients register to vote or request absentee ballots.

This study examines how the intervention shapes voter registration and turnout, particularly among patients of color, lower-income patients, and younger patients – populations that political parties and campaign organizations often overlook when staging voter registration drives. In addition, we ask how voter registration interventions in medical facilities shape civic engagement overall, as well as health outcomes for patients. Our study is two pronged.

First, we examine the effect of the Vot-ER on community registration rates using a difference-in-difference design that compares treated with untreated hospitals. Our data show the time and date that a given individual scans the code, follows the links to register, check their status, or request a mailed ballot. We pair these data with registration data (updated daily) to better identify not only the overall impact of the program but also which individuals are most likely to benefit from the QR codes, whether there are spillover effects to their household members, and if they vote in the next election. Moreover, we pair information about providers with that of patients to understand how race and gender congruence shape an unregistered voter’s likelihood of registering.

Second, we examine how participation in the campaign shapes providers' attitudes toward civic engagement, as well as how different mobilization messages shape their participation. To this end, we ran a preregistered experiment in October 2023 to test how community versus self-interest focused messages mobilize medical students involved in the voter registration campaign.

Authors

• Ben Carter

• Georgia Kernell, UCLA

• Katherine McCabe, Rutgers University

• James A. McCann, Purdue University

• Renu Singh, Durham University