April 22, 2025
Efficacy of Text Messaging in Activating Hard-to-Reach Voters in Rhode Island and Ohio
Latanya Sweeney and Josh Visnaw

This study tested whether one text message could prompt inactive voters to update their registration—and found modest but statistically significant improvements in Ohio.
- This study tested whether a single text message could prompt inactive voters to update their registration, using voter-provided numbers in Rhode Island and data-broker-sourced numbers in Ohio.
- In Rhode Island, at least 10% of texted voters updated their registration vs. 9% who didn’t—showing a performance boost.
- In Ohio, 5% of texted voters updated their registration vs. 4% of non-recipients, proving statistically significant outreach worked even with brokered data.
- These findings show that low-cost texts can effectively boost engagement and registration accuracy among hard-to-reach voters.