With a view on the upcoming Delhi elections, there is evidence from past legislative assembly elections that the youngest voter age group holds tremendous power in deciding which party forms the government. Data indicates that nearly 63% of all Delhi voters between the ages of 18 and 22 voted for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), with a lower vote share among other age groups. Thus, it seems likely that first-time voters are very important for electoral outcomes – this is particularly important given that their turnout is usually much lower than other age groups on account of various factors. Studies show that students perceive voting and the act of getting registered to vote to be harder and more complex than it actually is. In addition, citizen surveys, which are a part of the Comprehensive Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) program, reveal that voter indifference is high on the list of reasons not to register to vote, particularly among younger voters (between the ages of 18-20). Furthermore, voting is not ‘visible’ on university or college campuses and therefore does not encourage students to think concretely enough about registering, creating psychological distance toward a process already perceived to be cumbersome.
Take the case of the recently concluded legislative assembly elections in Maharashtra. The state has seen an average of 50% turnout in urban constituencies (clearly much lower than Delhi, where the turnout was close to 68% in 2015). This has prompted Project Mumbai, a civic action non-profit to work with the National Service Scheme (NSS), Mumbai University, the State Election Commission, and Monk Prayogshala to conduct a study to facilitate voter ID registrations across the city. This initiative, a three-year effort called Shambar Takke Shaii (STS, meaning Hundred Percent Inked) aims to achieve Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) program’s most pivotal goal: 100% voter turnout.
Citizens cannot vote without an electoral roll number and a photo identity card in their names, and therefore, registering to vote is one of the foremost steps in achieving a 100% voter turnout. However, traditional voter registration drives seemed to be only as good as the resources conducting them: if there were challenges in implementing a drive, then chances are that registration rates would not improve much. Thus, a novel pilot study, based on emerging studies from behavioural science focused on implementation intention of nudging college students (as first-time registrants) to register to vote.
In the 2014 and 2018 Maharashtra elections, the voter turnout of students between ages of 18-19 was 38% of the total population in that age group in 2014 in Maharashtra, which went up to 41.3% in 2018. The key focus of our study was to make registering to vote more salient and giving it prominence as a regular activity among college-going youth in Mumbai. This is easily facilitated now that services such as the NVSP allow easy registration of voters online by submitting documents, through to providing updates on the status of the EPIC. In order to mitigate the effects of the aforementioned, on the participation of the youth in an important practice of a democracy, a nudge was implemented. The intervention was piloted with 20 colleges in suburban and central Mumbai as part of Phase I of the STS. In order to test whether this nudge would work, we randomly assigned 10 colleges to receive the nudge (treatment colleges) and remaining 10 colleges had STS voter registration drives as per usual (control colleges).
Voter ID registrations in the treatment colleges followed a two-fold procedure - on day one, a desk was set up where interested students were given cue cards, these cue cards helped students plan for the process of registration on the following day; it needed them to answer the following: (a) what time they will register (slot); (b) where they would be coming from, and (c) what they would be doing before; and (d) who they will be coming with (with or without slot); (e) what they will be doing afterward. On the reverse of this card, we provided an ECI- and Project Mumbai-approved checklist of documents required for registering. All plans were made one day prior to the days of the voter registration drive. The slots were allocated as per the convenience of the students. The psychological basis for the intervention comes from the idea that assisting in implementing intentions to register as a voter will boost the likelihood of registration. Similarly, making the commitment to vote can be facilitated by making explicit plans.
Each college had a team of approximately 5-10 registration champions, including staff from Project Mumbai and Monk Prayogshala, teaching staff, an NSS PO, and NSS volunteers. This team coordinated to set up voter registration desks over two days in all colleges. The time, place, date, and duration of the registration drive were decided in accordance with the respective college’s exam timetable, events’ schedules and holidays. Students in both, control and treatment colleges were intimated about the same by college authorities and volunteers via circulars and Whatsapp groups.
What do we find? We compare results from the first day of registration between colleges in the control and treatment groups. We find a 33.1% difference in voter registration at colleges where plan-making was part of the intervention campaign relative to those that conducted regular voter registration drives. The figure below provides the difference. Since this was not a purely randomized control trial (RCT), there may be other factors also driving the differences in registrations, but one of the key differences remains the plan-making intervention.
The evidence that behavioural interventions can improve voter registration in the case if Mumbai city is promising: first-time voter registrants responded positively to being nudged by making plans to register to vote. However, there are a number of ways in which the study could improve, for future projects and interventions: since foreseeable and unforeseeable problems arise during a study, pilot or otherwise, clear communication between all stakeholders is of utmost importance to see the project to a successful end. Assigning one contact person per institution (Project Mumbai, Monk Prayogshala, and respective college authorities), to coordinate dates, and other details of the drive could help reduce delays and implementation issues. In addition, two intertwined issues, beyond the project team’s control were, lack of adequate internet connectivity and a slower NVSP registration facility on the website and mobile application. The registration drives across colleges found that tackling this barrier proved to be the most taxing and time consuming, ultimately hindering the overall process of the drive itself. In terms of access to consistent internet connectivity to register individuals, provision of wireless internet facilities from college authorities could help smoothen the process of registering.
The policy recommendation from this project is clear: plan-making has tremendous potential as a behavioural intervention to improve voter registration among college going students. Expanding the sample size and ensuring streamlined implementation may help in determining the efficacy of the nudge. Thus, behavioural interventions that nudge individuals in the age group with the lowest representation in the electoral system can help meet the overall objectives of universal voter registration in India.
Anchal Khandelwal and Anirudh Tagat
