Vote Forward’s 2024 Results Show That To Win Elections, It’s Time to Rethink Voter Outreach Based on Research & Transparency
Reaffirming its long-standing commitment to rigorous and transparent research, the organization launches multi-year expansion to innovate scalable voter outreach tactics ahead of 2026 and 2028
PRESS RELEASE | WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 9, 2025) — Today, Vote Forward—the national organization known for pioneering innovative, research-backed volunteer-driven voter engagement tactics—released results from its extensive 2024 letter-writing campaigns, and announced it is launching a comprehensive, multi-year strategy to test and scale a range of innovative, volunteer-driven voter mobilization tactics needed to win future elections and protect our democracy.
This commitment to innovating, testing, and transparently sharing results has been a part of Vote Forward’s DNA from the organization’s inception. Since pioneering the use of handwritten letters to mobilize voters in a landmark 2017 Alabama Senate race, Vote Forward has engaged more than 285,000 volunteers to write more than 40 million Vote Forward letters. The organization has measured impact more than 25 times through randomized controlled trials—20 of which have found positive effects on voter turnout. The organization’s groundbreaking work in 2020—mobilizing 200,000+ volunteers to write over 17 million letters—demonstrated one of the strongest measured effects on turnout in a presidential year (0.5-0.8 percentage points).
In 2024, the organization again conducted one of the nation’s largest volunteer-led voter contact programs, reaching nearly 10 million voters. The results reaffirm that handwritten letters remain an effective tool, boosting voter turnout by close to 0.2 percentage points among low propensity voters—substantial impact in the context of a presidential cycle and similar to the average effect of all previous measured presidential-year voter turnout programs. Yet, the findings also underscore the increasing limitations and diminishing returns of letters in major elections where voters are overwhelmed by competing messages and outreach—reaffirming the critical need for rigorous research, transparency, and innovation in voter contact strategies.
“In this moment of political wilderness for all who care about a strong and healthy democracy, we can’t afford to reheat stale leftovers from past elections. To win a better future, we must recommit to trying and rigorously testing scalable tactics to more deeply understand what actually moves voters,” said Yasmin Radjy, Executive Director of Vote Forward.
“What we hear every day from our community of thousands of volunteers is deep frustration at the organizations and campaigns claiming to have done everything right or have it all figured out—when the truth is, we collectively got a lot wrong. If we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have lost the election” added Radjy. “There’s a growing demand for transparency and honesty, and a desire for thinking and acting in new, bigger ways to reach and communicate with voters. Figuring out what works in our new political, media, and cultural landscape will require rigorous, scientific experimentation and testing.”
2024 Results: Effective Where It’s Hardest to Break Through
In 2024, Vote Forward mobilized 78,000 volunteers to write nearly 10 million letters to voters across 28 states, executing 53 randomized controlled trials—the gold standard for evaluating impact. The campaigns targeted about 5.2 million "surge voters" (those who participated in at least one major election after skipping 2016) and 3.9 million low-propensity voters.
These experiments found that Vote Forward’s 2024 letters had the greatest impact among lower-propensity voters. Among surge voters, the impact was negligible. However, letters boosted turnout among low-propensity voters by close to 0.2 percentage points, translating into approximately 9,000 additional votes—exceeding the margins that determined control of the U.S. House in both 2022 and 2024. In the context of a presidential cycle, this is a substantial result, similar to the average effect of all previous measured presidential-year voter turnout programs. According to post-election statistical modeling, these voters were just as Democratic-leaning as the original “surge” targets.
Additionally, an experimental campaign targeting overseas voters achieved an impressive 0.4 percentage point increase in turnout, underscoring the continued effectiveness of personalized outreach in lower-noise environments. U.S. voters living abroad receive much less attention during election cycles than their domestic counterparts, so voter contact interventions have more opportunity to reach and influence them without being drowned out by other messaging.
“While handwritten letters still drive voter turnout, the landscape has clearly shifted. Voters are inundated with outreach, and the same tactics don’t have the same impact they once did,” said Radjy. “If we want to win, we need to become more targeted and innovative in how we engage voters, especially in major elections.”
Vote Forward is working closely with the Analyst Institute, experts in evaluating program effectiveness, to validate its methods and findings.
Building on a History of Research & Innovation
From its founding, Vote Forward’s approach has been grounded in scientific experimentation and a commitment to transparency. Every program is structured to generate reliable scientific evidence—so that volunteers, donors, and practitioners alike can learn what works, what doesn’t, and why.
"Continuous experimentation and transparency have always been central to our work," said Radjy. "We don’t claim to have all the answers, but we’re deeply committed to finding them and openly sharing our results."
Now, Vote Forward is leveraging this deep history of innovation and rigorous testing to shape future strategies.
Innovating the Next Generation of Voter Engagement
To meet the urgency of the moment, Vote Forward is announcing an expanded program to develop, test, and scale voter contact tactics, including those that go beyond letter writing. The organization is launching a four-year plan to run strategic experiments aimed at identifying new, more effective tactics for the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential election.
This includes further developing Vote Forward’s existing handwritten letter tactic to capitalize on its efficacy among low-propensity voters, as well as adapting its volunteer-centered, tech-enabled, evidence-driven approach to pilot and test new approaches to voter contact tactics, such as:
Relational organizing via SMS and other remote engagement tools to foster ongoing, personalized volunteer-voter interactions.
Person-to-person digital organizing, empowering volunteers to engage authentically with voters through online platforms.
Distributed canvassing strategies, training and supporting volunteers to lead localized, issue-driven canvasses, including methods like deep canvassing and issue persuasion.
These tactical experiments align with Vote Forward’s broader approach to innovate voter contact methods, which includes testing strategies that aim to build deeper relationships between volunteers and voters, connect with voters longer-term by starting outreach earlier in the cycle, and engage voters holistically, from registration to persuasion to other forms of civic participation.
This expanded strategy reflects Vote Forward’s response to a shifting political and media landscape where traditional mobilization tactics need innovation. By rigorously testing new approaches at scale, powered by the organization’s thousands of volunteers, and sharing results openly, the organization hopes to equip the broader pro-democracy ecosystem with smarter, more impactful strategies.
First-of-Its-Kind Reciprocal Letter Campaign in Pennsylvania
To kick off this expanded effort, Vote Forward is launching a novel letter-writing campaign targeting voters in Pennsylvania’s critical 2025 Supreme Court election, a race that will affect the balance of power in the court, election law, and democratic norms in a perennial swing state. where voters will be invited to respond directly to volunteer letters. This will be the first time the organization has designed a way for voters to respond to its letters and connect with its volunteers. This innovation transforms traditional one-way outreach into meaningful two-way engagement, laying the groundwork for deeper volunteer-voter relationships.
A Call for Rigor and Transparency
As the organization expands its strategy beyond letter writing, it’s also urging others in the pro-democracy field to adopt similar standards of rigorous testing and transparency.
“We’re facing historic threats to democracy, yet too many organizations are still holding on to what’s familiar instead of what’s effective,” said Radjy. “To win elections, democracy supporters need to prioritize innovation that is heavily backed by scientific methods of experimentation—and transparently share what we learn, both good and bad, with others in our ecosystem. Together, we can build the tools and strategies needed to win.”
Vote Forward remains committed to radical scientific rigor and transparency: running experiments that engage huge numbers of voters in an honest, human way; measuring the results; sharing findings publicly; acknowledging where tactics fall short; scaling the tactics that work; and helping build a more resilient, data-informed pro-voter and pro-democracy movement.
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About Vote Forward
Vote Forward is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit pro-democracy nonprofit committed to supporting voter participation, especially in a time of democratic backsliding, by enabling grassroots volunteers to test and scale innovative, high-impact tactics that encourage fellow Americans to vote.
Since its founding in 2017, Vote Forward has mobilized over 285,000 volunteers to write more than 40 million letters and has run dozens of randomized controlled trials to rigorously evaluate its work.
While most of its letter-writing campaigns are nonpartisan and focused on increasing turnout in underrepresented communities, Vote Forward also supports campaigns aimed at turning out likely Democratic voters in strategic states and districts.
Learn more and get involved at www.votefwd.org.
For media inquiries, please contact press@votefwd.org