Context is key for explaining ballot questions in voter guides
In 2022, we partnered with the League of Women Voters of California to run a community review of the ballot question explanations in their Easy Voter Guide (EVG), a nonpartisan voter education booklet available in 5 languages that aims to help the election make sense to voters.
Although we were looking at a voter education piece produced by a nonprofit organization, many of our findings can also be applied to ballot questions on the actual ballot, as well as supplemental voter education materials produced by an elections office.
What we looked at
Central to the EVG are plain language explanations of every statewide ballot question.
Each explanation contains 5 parts:
- The way it is now
- What would change if the ballot question passes
- What the effect will be on the state budget if that ballot question passes
- Main arguments for voting yes
- Main arguments for voting no
How we rewrote the explanations
The League did a great job writing the first drafts in plain language. But as we conducted in-person interviews with voters, we saw how voters could still be misled by confusing concepts, irrelevant background, and vague descriptions.
Check out this video to see how we changed one of the “the way it is now” sections to make sure it provided the right level of context.
A quick note about this video: the walkthrough shows the text as it might appear on a ballot. The EVG has 4 additional sections that provide more context for voters.
Key takeaways
Whether you’re writing the ballot question itself, or supplemental voter education materials, here are a few things to keep in mind:
Providing the right level of context is key.
If you write something in plain language that isn’t relevant to the question being asked, it’ll still be confusing. In the video, the before version provided irrelevant background information, which led participants to ask questions that weren’t important to the substance of the question.
Your guiding question should always be: what does a voter need to know in order to make a choice?
Talking to real voters is the best way to know if you’re on the right track.
You can do this through formal usability testing where you invite voters to come to your office, or like we did by catching voters for 10 minute chats out in the real world at farmers markets and parks.
These conversations can help identify potential problems before you go to print. Voters bring different understandings of the questions—and different levels of civic literacy.
Supplemental voter education materials can help voters feel confident as they prepare to vote.
A voter guide—whether it’s produced by a nonpartisan community group or by an elections office—is a perfect opportunity to clarify a potentially confusing ballot question.
On a ballot, formatting and word counts might be restricted. But a supplemental voter education piece like the EVG has fewer restrictions.
About the work
This project was led by Sean Isamu Johnson and Isabelle Yisak, in partnership with the League of Women Voters of California.