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Might additional opportunities to cast a ballot prior to Election Day increase the probability that an individual turns out to vote? More narrowly, does convenience voting have differential effects, altering the method of how some registrants cast their ballot? Scholars disagree as to whether convenience voting bolsters turnout, or even if it alters the method of voting. We argue that the targeted adoption of early in-person voting on the campuses of public colleges and universities lowers the barriers of casting a ballot, increasing the turnout of young registrants. Drawing on individual-level election administration data from Florida in the 2018 general election, we offer a series of models (differences-indifferences (DD), differences-indifferences-indifferences (DDD), and matching combined with differences-indifferences) to estimate the effect of the expansion of early in-person voting on eight public campuses. Although we find uneven effects of the policy reform on overall turnout, we find consistent evidence that the adoption of on-campus early voting not only made it more likely that young registrants exposed to the policy turned out to vote, but that it also shifted the timing of when these young voters cast a ballot.

This study examines the effect of telephone survey dialing patterns on lab productivity and survey responses. Using an original data set of paradata from 2010 to 2017 and a machine learning technique for variable selection, we find that early and late afternoon shifts are as productive as late evening shifts for both landline and cellphone Random Digit Dialing (RDD) samples. Also, early weekdays are more productive than the weekend for the cellphone RDD samples. Most importantly, time of the interview affects survey responses; therefore, survey practitioners and scholars should be cognizant of this effect when scheduling calls.