Case Studies
Real impact, measured.
Explore the campaigns that make a difference. Our case studies highlight how we combine strategy, innovation, and community organizing to drive measurable civic engagement and real-world impact.
Polling Place Images
What began as a simple idea became one of our flagship voter mobilization programs by asking a straightforward question: would showing voters a picture of where they vote make them more likely to turn out?
In 2021, Movement Labs tested this idea for the first time in the Virginia gubernatorial election, sending voters a text message with a Google Street View image of their polling location shortly before Election Day. The results were clear: voters who received the image were about 0.8 percentage points more likely to vote than those who did not. A second randomized controlled trial in the 2022 Illinois primary both refined the original approach and opened up new variations to test, comparing Street View images, map images, message timing, and follow-up texts. That testing showed a single, well-timed Street View image consistently outperformed traditional GOTV messages, increasing turnout by roughly 7% in a low-turnout election.
Today, Polling Place Images has grown from a one-state experiment into a multi-state program reaching millions of voters every election cycle. Movement Labs continues to test new variations, message framing, and text cadences to learn what works best, and to keep pushing turnout higher with each cycle.
Notable Outcome:
Polling Place Images is now a core Movement Labs program and an ongoing testing ground for improving how voters are moved to action.
Creator-Led GOTV with SEIU in Detroit
Movement Labs partnered with SEIU to rigorously test whether creator-led voter comms can increase voter turnout among Black voters in Detroit. As SEIU shaped its 2025 research agenda, the organization sought clear evidence about the impact of influencer messaging, particularly among Black voters. Together, we designed and implemented a randomized controlled experiment to measure real turnout effects, not just digital engagement.
The study included approximately 247,000 Black registered voters in Detroit, who were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Two treatment arms received influencer videos through paid digital ads, and one arm also received influencer video MMS messages in the final days before the election. We measured voter turnout and found that both approaches worked.
Notable Outcome:
Layering the ads and texts together appeared more effective than ads alone, and the texts may have been the more cost-effective component with limited budget.
Contest Every Race
Founded in 2018 to address a critical gap in rural and down-ballot elections, Contest Every Race set out with a simple premise: no election should go uncontested. What began with recruiting a single candidate in an ignored race quickly scaled into a nationwide initiative.
By lowering barriers for first-time candidates and empowering everyday Democrats to step forward, especially in communities where Republicans and the radical right had long run unopposed, Contest Every Race built a durable pipeline of local leaders and future officeholders. Check out Contest Every Race.
Notable Outcome:
Contest Every Race has recruited nearly 12,000 candidates nationwide and almost 50% have won their races, flipping seats, breaking one-party control, and reshaping the political landscape at the local and state level.
