Interested in voting patterns, Mr. Hanway three years ago partnered with Louisa Hackett, who, during her years as a consultant to nonprofit agencies, kept returning to the notion that many of the social problems her clients were trying to solve would be easier to remedy if the people affected by them made their voices heard through the electoral process. With the help of some grant money, she started an initiative called Community Votes to see whether voter registration and turnout rates could be improved in a select group of low-income neighborhoods. Queensbridge was among them.

Research had shown that personalized messaging, like knocking on doors, was the most effective way to mobilize voters. But knocking on doors in housing projects, as community organizers will tell you, does not typically produce the desired result. Inspired by the mission of the Massachusetts outfit Nonprofit VOTE, which works with existing community groups to increase voter turnout, Ms. Hackett approached nonprofits already operating in specific neighborhoods to get them to reach out to eligible and potential voters — perhaps when they were coming in for something else, to get a letter or a form translated, for instance. Older residents who were active voters were also enlisted to encourage younger, more apathetic residents to become more involved.

At Jacob Riis, one of those voters was Maude Askin, 83, who has lived in Queensbridge since the 1960s. She told her story. “I wasn’t able to vote until I got here to New York,” Ms. Askin, who moved to the city from South Carolina, said. “Once I registered here it was nonstop.” Since then, Ms. Askin hasn’t missed voting in an election. Through Jacob Riis, people who came in were asked to make voting pledges, addressing cards to themselves that were mailed right before Election Day reminding them to go to the polls.

During the midterm elections in 2014, for which there was a historically low showing, voters in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens, reached through Ms. Hackett’s initiative, turned out at a considerably higher rate than registered voters in the Bronx and Queens generally, 35 percent compared with 22 percent. Nearly half of those “community voters” had a household income of under $25,000. Among those reached in Queensbridge through Jacob Riis, turnout was 40 percent. The data is included in a report recently released by Nonprofit VOTE showing similar findings nationally, which is to say that when potential voters were personally contacted and encouraged, through groups they were already familiar with, voter turnout rates were higher, particularly among those making less than $25,000 a year.