ABSTRACT
Previous research suggests that political parties have been especially active in personally contacting potential voters in recent presidential elections. Using data from the American National Election Studies (ANES) from 1956 through 2008, this study builds on the extant literature by examining major party contact during the 2008 election cycle. We also investigate the major parties' targeting strategies and the overall impact of party contact on voter turnout. We find that overall voter contact rates remained on par with 2004; in absolute terms, however, an unprecedented number of Americans report being contacted by a major party in 2008. Democrats were significantly more active than Republicans in 2008. For the most part, the parties pursued support from similar coalitions of voters as in 2004, although some groups were targeted more aggressively by each party in 2008, especially in competitive states. The results show further that mobilization efforts in 2008 accounted for boosting na tional turnout by 14.5 million votes.
