First and Foremost - Understanding and optimising the electoral participation of first time voters

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First times are moments that many never forget. According to Bruter and Harrison (2017), 73% of British people, 82% of Americans, and 90% of South Africans remember their first vote. The existing literature has also confirmed the long-term importance of that first electoral experience. Butler and Stokes (1971) showed that electoral choice in the first two elections largely determines future vote. Franklin (2004) and Coppock and Green's (2016) works show how turnout at the first opportunity may start a habituation process. Lodge, Gottfried at al. (2014) and Bruter and Harrison (2017) go even further and find that voting in the first two elections of their lives will likely make citizens regular participants, whilst abstaining in both may lead them to become chronic abstentionists instead. First elections thus determine likely electoral turnout and behaviour for much of people's lives, and First and Foremost dedicates systematic attention to the way new voters experience them, the psychological, institutional, and political determinants of their behaviour, and potential institutional responses.First and Foremost is a fully piloted empirical comparative project based on mixed quantitative and qualitative methods which focuses on characterising the experience of citizens' first vote, understanding the psychological, institutional, and contextual factors that impede or improve their likely participation, satisfaction, and likelihood to participate in future elections. We also assess how Election Management Bodies can use the opportunity of this first vote to improve potential first time voters' engagement and satisfaction notably by experimentally testing very specific instruments directed at first time voters. The project features a unique collaboration with Election Management Bodies in the UK, Australia, South Africa, France and the USA to ensure the highest level of impact of our proposed work.At the heart of our model is the idea that whilst youth participation is a challenge, a citizen's first vote is also a unique opportunity. We use psychological research on other 'first times' - from sexuality to alcohol and parenthood - to understand how the first time dynamics can be best adapted to the question of the first vote. The project will answer the following research question: How is a young person's first election experienced, what are the personal, institutional, and contextual determinants of potential first time voters' emotions, attitudes (satisfaction with the electoral process, efficacy, alienation), and turnout in their first and subsequently second election? It relies on four methodological elements: 1) a panel-study survey of people reaching electoral franchise for the first time, 2) focus groups, 3) election diaries, and 4) experiments and field experiments on the impact of measures aimed to make a first election special and successful.The project makes impact a priority, predominantly focusing on three key avenues to translate our research findings into political solutions and engage users with our research from its conception and organisation to the implementation of its most important findings: collaboration with leading Electoral Commissions/Election Management Bodies as well as Inter-Governmental Organisations involved in the support for electoral democracy; collaboration with think tanks which are concerned with youth engagement and participation; collaboration with leading media outlets with a strong audience amongst young citizens.