While political scientists have long recognized the strong relationship between general political knowledge and voter turnout, less work has attempted to explore how knowing generalized political facts — such as the proportion of Congress required to override a presidential veto — might relate to participation. One possible mechanism linking the two is knowledge relevant to a particular political campaign.  Using both cross-sectional data and survey experimental evidence, we explore what role campaign-specific knowledge might play in the voting process.

Research conducted in collaboration with Mike Weiksner, e-the-people.org