Associate Professor Erik Nisbet co-authored a study with political science professors Paul Beck and Richard Gunther that was published by Vox: “The 2016 ground game from the voters’ perspective.” The study focused around a 2016 election survey that was conducted by Nisbet, Beck and Gunther.

Their study asked voters to report how much they were contacted by various political campaigns. What the study discovered is that fewer voters were contacted in 2016 than in other recent political campaigns. This study also confirms that grassroots party contacting was less widespread in 2016 than it had been in 2012.

The election study also determined that each party concentrated their efforts on their bases of loyal partisans, activists, and voters in the party primaries. However, results showed that both partiers were more likely to contact older, better-educated, higher-income and regular voters as well, regardless of party preference.