Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Captain Method?
Turnout Nation is a non-partisan non-profit organization that focuses on increasing voter turnout by helping people help their friends to vote in an organized way through friend-to-friend mobilization. The idea of encouraging people to get their friends to vote is often called relational organizing. In our specific method, it is called the Captain Method.
This method recruits volunteer Voting Captains who help ten of their contacts to vote. These ten can be anybody they know, friends, classmates, coworkers, family members, neighbors–anybody they know. Ideally, the contacts are people who have never or are less likely to vote. We help Voting Captains match their contacts to the publicly-available voter registration list so the Captain will know if their contacts previously voted in that state or not.
We encourage Captains to focus on the simple civic act of voting. Turnout Nation is non-partisan and will never ask for you to take a specific political position or try to convince others to do so. As an organization, Turnout Nation commits to the Captains that we do not otherwise communicate with their voters via the various stranger-to-stranger methods and will not sell or give away their contacts' information. The method is technology agnostic; Turnout Nation has and uses an app for large scale trials or efforts, but the method can and has been successfully used at smaller scales with just paper.
We hope that the Captain relationship can be a long term relationship through many elections, including during the higher turnout even-year November elections as well as smaller local elections, primaries, and ballot initiatives. And finally, as an organization, Turnout Nation is credit agnostic. Our goal is to illustrate and improve the effectiveness of the method itself. We hope to work with other organizations based around different places, demographics, and issues to promote voting, not a particular political position.
How does Volunteering Work?
When you sign up, you identify eleven of your friends or family members that have not previously voted. Then, by random selection Turnout Nation, you will be instructed to contact ten and help them vote by reaching out early and often to ensure they are registered, have made a plan to vote, and then actually vote. That's it! All volunteers do is help their friends and family vote by staying in touch! You will never be asked to promote a particular candidate or political position, or talk with someone who you did not select to work with.
Why Encourage only 10 People to Vote, Not all 11?
The best way to promote adoption of the Turnout Nation strategy is to demonstrate it works using a randomized control trial (RCT). The 11th person for each Voting Captain acts as a control for the other 10 as to what people do if no one helps them to vote. A RCT allows Turnout Nation to demonstrate in a statistically rigorous manner that friend-to-friend mobilization works better than many get out the vote strategies presently in use.
What Types of Organizations Can Help?
We are looking for any organization, formal or informal, that is interested in increasing voter turnout. Organizations can be a great source of Voting Captains who can provide support and strategies for their members. We are a non-partisan group that just wants to get people to the polls!
What Types of Organizations Can Help?
Turnout Nation is more than happy to sign off on volunteer hours. Recruiting or becoming a voting captain Voting Captain is a great way to serve your community!
How can I help?
What are your skills and interests? We are working only in New Jersey for this election as it is one of the few statewide elections this fall and the voter registration file is free. For this election, we are particularly interested in people from New Jersey since all the Captains we recruit will be from there. But others who are interested, particularly those who have time and skills, can help us. Let us know your interests (e.g. social media, researching upcoming elections) and what you are good at in 50 words or less, along with your CV or LinkedIn profile to [email protected]
Are you hiring?
We are not hiring. We are an all volunteer, zero budget organization.
Why aren't you looking at my state?
We would love to work in more states but are limited as there are so few statewide elections in 2025 and the cost of the voter file is prohibitive to a zero-budget organization like Turnout Nation. The Captain method and friend-to-friend mobilization are virtually free, but require longer timelines than other methods. We are beginning to assemble teams to work in more states in 2026.
Are there any demographic groups or communities that Turnout Nation targets?
We are particularly interested in groups that have been disenfranchised from voting, or that have lower voter turnout rates, for example younger people. We encourage Captains to choose contacts who are less likely to vote. But in general, don’t focus directly on specific demographics or communities.
Can I still be an intern if I'm not located in New Jersey?
Interns are college students responsible to recruit organizations, clubs, sports teams, Greek organizations, that in turn identify Voting Captains in New Jersey, so almost all those eligible will be from there. However, students from New Jersey who have gone out of state to college are eligible to be interns.
What kind of training or support do Captains receive to help their contacts vote?
There are several ways we help Captains help their voters to vote. The first is for us to talk with the Captains about what has worked for other Captains in the past. Of course different things work for different people, and the Captains know their voters. However, there are some tactics that have worked well in the past. For example, asking voters about their plan to vote works better than simply telling them to vote. When you ask them their plan, you can better isolate aspects of their plan that they are not sure of or may need help with. We also connect with Captains to ask for updates, send reminders, and that sort of thing.
How effective is the Captain Method and how do you know it works?
The Captain Method is the most effective method of increasing voter turnout. We have done several trials, overseen by independent entities. The first was in 2019 and at 13.2% increase in voter turnout as compared to the control group was “an order of magnitude” higher than other methods.
Why are you so focused on voter turnout and what is the underlying mission of Turnout Nation?
The US has among the lowest voter turnout in the world. Low voter turnout is both a cause and an effect of low confidence in democracy. Elections in the US tend to be viewed as a collection of candidate campaigns and the media focuses on the horserace, who is ahead. But in the end, an election is simply people choosing their leadership, and the relentless horse race coverage and campaigning can obscure that. Also, more and more, under a banner of election integrity, there are changes to the rules of the election that make it harder for some groups to participate in elections. In these cases, inexperienced or occasional voters may face higher barriers to participation that a friend may be able to alleviate. Turnout Nation believes more people should vote, and that the best way to make that happen is the Captain Method.
What is the difference between a Captain and an Intern?
A Captain a volunteer who helps ten friends to vote. For the 2025 New Jersey Gubernatorial election, we are calling an intern somebody who recruits ten Captains in New Jersey.
Are there plans to expand to other states in the future?
Absolutely! We very much want to work in other states. We hope that this trial in New Jersey will be successful enough to get us funding to do that. A big part of where we work relates to the cost of the voter registration lists.
Why is Turnout Nation focusing on New Jersey specifically?
An important part of the Captain Method is that each Captain agrees to help ten friends to vote. In the US it is public information if somebody has voted or not (ballots are secret, so not of course who they voted for!). After the election when the voter file of who voted, or not, becomes available from the state, we let the Captains know if their voters voted. To do that, we need the statewide voter file. Some states charge quite a bit for their file, while some charge much less. New Jersey does not charge for that information, and they have a statewide election in 2025. Those are the main reasons we chose them.
What is Turnout Nation’s overall timeline until the election of 2025 and afterwards?
The Captain Method does not require much money, but it requires time. We will spend the summer recruiting and onboarding interns who will then identify organizations at their college, most of which have no specific political agenda, to recruit and train organizers. The organizers will then recruit and train Captains. In the fall, Captains identify their voters and help their voters get ready to vote, and in some cases help their voters register to vote. Ideally those voters will vote as early as they can. When the voter file is released, we will determine turnout rates our Captains’ voters and let the Captains know how successful they were. We will then publish the data. If we are as successful as we hope, we will begin building on our success and planning which states to work in for later elections.