Get Out The Vote : How Encouraging Voting Changes Political Outcomes ∗ Justin

How do measures to increase turnout affect election outcomes? I use a novel approach to analyze how these measures influence both voter turnout and the candidates’ political positions. Generally, lowering the net expense of voting reduces political polarization. If the net expense of voting is made very low, then candidates no longer have an incentive to take partisan positions to motivate turnout and will converge at the median voter’s ideal point. For small changes in the net expense of voting, however, decreasing the cost of voting and penalties for not voting (two common measures) can result in drastically different political outcomes. Counter-intuitively, measures that make voting cheaper might not increase turnout: since these measures decrease the difference between the candidates’ political positions, they also decrease the benefit of voting. ∗I am grateful to Rachel Kranton for her valuable advice and encouragement. I also thank Alex Groves, Bahar Leventoglu, Brendan Daley, Curtis Taylor, David McAdams, Huseyin Yilderim, John Aldrich, Michael Munger, Philipp Sadowski, and the Duke Microeconomic Theory Group for helpful comments and suggestions. †European University Institute and Duke University, 213 Social Sciences Building, PO Box 90097, Durham, NC 27708, email: [email protected].