Research, Videos & Articles

The Voter Mobilization Campaign is built on Social Work’s core values and code of ethics. It is guided by evidence showing positive effects of voting, voter engagement and voter turnout on individuals and communities.

If you have an article or resource that you would like to include, please send it to us at info@votingissocialwork.org

Research: Recommended Articles

Here are some of the articles we recommend, including an Annotated Bibliography on Benefits to Voting for a summary of articles on the benefits of voting for individuals and communities.

  • Abramovitz, M., Sherraden, M., Hill, K., Rhodes Smith, T., Lewis, B., & Mizrahi, T. (2019). Voting is social work: Voices from the National Social Work Voter Mobilization Campaign. Journal of Social Work Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2019.1656690 
  • Ballard, P., Hoyt, L., & Pachucki, M. (2018). Impacts of Adolescent and Young Adult Civic Engagement on Health and Socioeconomic Status in Adulthood. Child Development, pg. 1-17.
  • Behrens, A., Uggen, C., & Manza, J. (2003). Ballot manipulation and the "menace of negro domination": Racial threat and felon disenfranchisement in the United States, 1850-2002. American Journal of Sociology, 109(3), 559-605. Ballot manipulation and the "menace of negro domination": Racial threat and felon disenfranchisement in the United States, 1850-2002
  • CIRCLE. Civic engagement among registered citizens and non-registered eligible citizens. (2011) Retrieved from http://www.civicyouth.org/civic-engagement-among-registered-voters-and-non-registered-eligible-citizens/
  • Florida Parole Commission. Status update: Restoration of civil rights cases granted 2009 and 2010. (2011) Retrieved from https://www.fcor.state.fl.us/docs/reports/2009-2010ClemencyReport.pdf
  • Hardina, D. (2003). What Social Workers Need to Know About the Right to Vote. The Social Policy Journal, 2:4, 53-70. What social workers need to know about the right to vote
  • Hylton, M., Rhodes Smith, T., Powers, J., Ostrander, J. & Lane, S.R. (2018). The Power of Three: Infusing voter engagement in lower level BSW courses.  Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work.
  • Kansas Health Foundation. Kansas Civic Health Index. (2016) Retrieved from: http://kansashealth.org/resources/kansas-civil-health-index/
  • Kitschelt, H. P. & Rehm, P. (2019). Secular partisan realignment in the United States: The socioeconomic reconfiguration of white partisan support since the New Deal era. Politics & Society, 47(3), 425-479. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329219861215 
  • Klar, M., & Kasser, T. (2009). Some benefits of being an activist: Measuring activism and its role in psychological well-being. Political Psychology, 30 (5), 755- 777.
  • Leighley, J.E., & Nagler, J. (2013). Who votes now?: Demographics, issues, inequality, and turnout in the United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  • Lane, S. R., Hill, K., Ostrander, J., Powers, J., Rhodes Smith, T., & Hylton, M. E. (2020). Creating a culture of voting in direct and generalist practice: Training field instructors. Advances in Social Work. 19(1), 86-105. https://doi.org/10.18060/22614
  • Lane, S.R., Humphreys, N.A., Graham, E., Matthews, N. & Moriarty, J. (2007). Voter registration: Empowering clients through agency-based voter registration. Journal of Policy Practice, 6(4), 79-94. doi: 10.1300/J508v06n04_06
  • Martin, P. S. (2003). Voting’s re- wards: voter turnout, attentive publics, and congressional allocation of federal money. American Journal of Political Science, 47(1), 110-127.
  • Martin, P. S., & Claibourn, M. P. (2013). Citizen participation and congressional responsiveness: New evidence that participation matters. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 38(1), 59-81
  • McClendon, G. G., Pitzer, K. A., Sherraden, M., & Aguilar, A. (with Lieberman, D.). (2019). Will I be able to cast my ballot? Race, income, and voting access on Election Day (CSD Report No. 19-36). St. Louis, MO: Washington University, Center for Social Development. https://doi.org/10.7936/y86s-7q32 
  • National Conference on Citizenship. Civic health and unemployment. Retrieved from https://ncoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/2011UnemploymentCHI.pdf
  • Piven, F. F., & Cloward, R. A. (2000). Why Americans Still Don’t Vote and Why Politicians Want it That Way. Boston: Beacon Press.
  • Pritzker, S.R. & Lane, S.R. (2017). Commentary: Political social work: History, forms and opportunities for innovation. Social Work, 62(1), 80-82 (special issue on Civil Rights and Social Justice). doi: 10.1093/sw/sww072
  • Rolfe, M. (2013). Voter turn- out: A social theory of political participation. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
  • Sanders, L. M. (August 30-September 2, 2001). The psychological benefits of political participation. In Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association: 2001 2001; San Francisco. Retrieved from    http://www.nonprofitvote. org/ documents/ 2010/11/the-psychological-benefits-of-political- participation.pdf
  • Uggen, C., Larson, R., & Shannon, S. (2016, October 6th). 6 million lost voters: State-level estimates of felony disenfranchisement, 2016. Retrieved from http:// www.sentencingproject. org/ publications/6-million-lost- voters- state-level-estimates-felony-disenfranchisement-2016/
  • Hohmann, J. (2018, July 27). The Daily 202: Puerto Ricans who fled to Florida after Hurricane Maria are not registering to vote. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/07/27/daily-202-puerto-ricans-who-fled-to-florida-after-hurricane-maria-are-not-registering-to-vote/5b5a82a61b326b0207955dcb/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.af779f9c03d5

    Books

    • Lane, S.R. & Pritzker, S. (2018). Political social work: Using power to create social change. New York, NY: Springer International.
    • Berman, Ari. (2015) Give us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America. New York, NY: Picador, Ferrar, Straus & Giroux.

    Webinars

    Videos

    Podcasts