Streamlining and nudging in voter registration

Some of us at the Center for Civic Design used to think about voter registration as just an enabling task, something voters had to do to get access to a ballot. It was a way of authenticating (or at least getting affirmation) that a person was eligible to vote. A necessary step.

In working with several states on modernizing voter registration, it’s clear that at least in some places, voter registration can be streamlined to remove some of the friction in the process of registering to vote.

You election officials know voter registration like the back of your hand. But the landscape of ways to register is always shifting. Changes might come from state legislation. Or technology. Or both.

Over the last year, the team at the Center for Civic Design has been on a deep dive on voter registration. We’ve learned a lot about how to streamline registration questions, particularly at DMVs and other non-election-focused agencies.

Nudge voters in the instructions

Classic voter registration forms present eligibility criteria and asks a question that can be answered either way: Do you want to register to vote? 

New state laws (sometimes called automatic voter registration, or AVR) replace this question with a statement like “We will use your information to register you to vote” with a checkbox to decline. This approach nudges people towards registration, while still giving them a clear opportunity to opt-out.

Thinking about all the “nudges” embedded in any form’s design — what your questions and screen layout make easy — is a great way to think about any voter registration form.

Although the new process includes some big nudges (like switching from opt-in to opt-out), any voter registration form can contain little nudges. For example, using information already in the DMV or social services systems makes the process easier for both voters and clerks. When you already have that information, you can ask fewer voter registration questions.

Testing instructions can ensure the nudge is in the right direction.

Streamline the questions

Even if you aren’t in a state that is implementing automatic voter registration, make the process of registering easier and more efficient. Officials who have taken this approach in Delaware say that the voter registration part of getting a driver’s license takes just 15 seconds. You can take these steps and be in compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).

• Reduce the number of questions people have to answer to register to vote. The more questions people have to answer, the more likely they are to give up. Go back to your election code and double check that each question is really required. See if you can answer a question based on what someone’s already told you because you have that data in a system or a database.
 For example, on paper forms, it is often required to provide the name of the county the voter lives in. But computers can know this without the voter having to fill it in.
• Ask questions is plain language. For example, instead of saying “I decline to participate in automatic voter registration” say “I do not want to register to vote or update my registration.” Confusing language can be just as big an impediment as many questions.
• Collect digital signatures. This modernization is a little bigger than just changing the questions on the form, but it makes it possible to transmit the whole form electronically from the DMV office to the local election office.

Effective and accurate voter registration needs the whole ecosystem to work well

It’s easy to think of voter registration as an interaction between a voter and their local election official. But for many voters, their registration flows through multiple government agencies. For example, people who register at the DMV can have their information passed electronically from the state DMV, to state election official, to local election office. Offering great service to voters requires making each of those stages work well.

• Look at the scenarios where the information is collected. Who gets the voter data into a system? The voter, or someone who works for state government? Does that happen through a paper form, a kiosk, a website, or an app?
• Ask questions voters understand, so they can easily give the right, legal answer.
• Don’t ask questions the system already has answers for.
• Test the whole workflow periodically to be sure that the information the voter supplied is the data that ends up in the voter registration database.

Working hard on each question and testing the form with real (and potential) voters will help ensure that the registration system works for voters. It should also make the transaction faster and easier for clerks. Finally, modernizing voter registration helps election administrators keep the voter registration database accurate and up-to-date. It’s a win for voters, staff, the DMV (or any other agency), the state elections office and all the county elections officers who run our elections.

Resources

• Best practices for modernizing voter registration (article and PDF)
• Webinar: Voter registration modernization
• Lessons from states that have modernized their voter registration process (blog post)
• Ask the right question at the right time (blog post)
• Field Guide To Ensuring Voter Intent Vol. 02 Writing instructions voters understand 

P.S. Special thanks to Colin MacArthur for all his work on modernizing voter registration and distilling best practices from what we’ve learned testing in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese!

This was originally published in our Civic Designing newsletter. Subscribe on Mailchimp to get election design tips delivered to your mailbox.