Does direct participation in the electoral process contribute to increase turn out in future electoral contests? In many countries, polling officers are chosen by lot among all registered voters in the precinct. This fact makes it a perfect natural experiment in order to test the effect of random assignment into direct involvement in electoral procedures. Employing real validated turnout data from elections in Catalonia during the 1930s it is possible towe trace real individual-level data on turnoutconstruct an individual-level panel dataset across all elections that took place during the Spanish Second Republic period and examine whether participating in the organization of the elections increased an individual’s propensity to participate. Employing a novel data set of polling officers in 1933 elections, we employ a Difference-in-differences strategy in order to assess whether these individuals were more likely to turn out to vote after their appointment as polling officers. WeOur expectation is that that the appointment of officers should have a positive effect and increase turnout, especially for low-skilled individuals, women and for individuals living in less-politicized environments.