The Impact of the Campaign on the Results of Local Government Elections

Abstract

In a recent article in this journal1 we reported the results of an experiment designed to investigate, amongst other things, the effect of canvassing and polling-day activity upon the results of local government elections. On the basis of our data we argued that thorough canvassing before polling day and ‘knocking up’ on the day produced an appreciable increase in turnout. We also showed that, in a situation in which only one party organized the election thoroughly, this party would benefit disproportionately from the higher turnout; that is, it would receive an increased share of the vote.