Maryland’s new election website speaks directly to voters

Sharing 2024 election information in a fresh, exciting way

This year, the Maryland State Board of Elections launched a new webpage as part of an outreach campaign for the 2024 elections. We loved the website’s design and how it features community leaders. At CCD, we’ve done a lot of research on what makes a great local elections website and how featuring leaders that resonate with a community can help inspire voters. While we weren’t involved with this project, when we saw this website, we knew we had to speak with the team about their process.

“Voting should be fun. It’s participating in our democracy. It is honoring all the past struggles to get to this right that you have. I love elections, and that’s what I wanted to encompass with the vision of this ad campaign,” state administrator Jared DeMarinis, who led the project, told us. 

Here are the highlights from the conversation with DeMarinis about what went into building this campaign. 

Landing page: A new way to navigate an existing website

DeMarinis and the team wanted to create a new look for the State Board of Elections’ website for the 2024 election without redoing the entire site. The solution they found was to create a landing page specifically for the 2024 election and to direct voters there.

This approach was also practical. An election website contains a lot of information, but during an election cycle, voters are looking for specific information. 

For example: When is election day? Who’s on the ballot? Elections websites are one of the main reliable sources for answers and this new landing page can get that information to them quickly. 

This approach was one of DeMarinis biggest takeaways for the project as a whole and one he was excited to share with others who might want to explore a new approach but are limited by their current website. “Don’t feel like you have to revamp the entire website. There are ways it can feel fresh and exciting for the upcoming election and crystallize that information in one page, rather than multiple pages. And that can be a new public-facing front for that campaign,” he told us.

Community leaders speak to voters directly 

When you get to the page, the first thing you see are 4 smiling faces. Below, there’s an accompanying video voters can watch to learn 3 ways to participate in voting. 

“We wanted to make it an inclusive and diverse ad campaign, which is what Maryland’s about,” DeMarinis shared. The idea was: “Let’s engage and invite voters in to see what we do, and why it’s important,” he added.

Speaking to voters directly was a more powerful and impactful approach than using animation or anything that people might gloss over and not pay attention to. “To me, having a person look directly into the camera and speak to you makes an impact. And voting is too important not to make sure everyone who can participate should participate,” DeMarinis shared. He credits this approach to his campaign-related background.  

The community leader’s authenticity, personality and passion comes through in the photos and videos. One thing that helped bring out their passion was giving them a lot of creative freedom to speak from their own voice rather than from a script. “Some of the videos were off the cuff, just asking the influencers why they think voting is important,” DeMarinis explained. 

The main directions were to make it fun, enjoyable, and inviting. “They ran with it, and I think that creative element available to them allowed for some freedom, spontaneity and organic flow,” he added.

Following the success of this campaign, DeMarinis shared that the team would like to use this approach to recruit poll workers (or election judges as they are called in Maryland). Though the recruitment process has traditionally been a challenge, his hope is that an engaging campaign like this one will help invite people to learn about how to become a poll worker and why the role is so important. 

Interactive features simplify planning to vote 

One feature that stands out is the interactive “Add to calendar” that allows people to put important dates on their own calendar quickly and easily. It’s also a way to cut through all the information on the web, and help voters actually remember the information they find on this website once they leave it. 

“It helps with the modern way of how we get information, process information and how we then use that information to process what we want to do,” DeMarinis told us. 

This feature is designed with mobile and tablet users in mind, since this is now how many people access the website and their calendars. 

Here’s how someone can add early voting to their calendar with a few clicks. 

Looking ahead: 2026 elections and beyond

The Maryland Board of Elections shared the new website on social media and in press releases leading up to the primary election day. It’s generated a lot of interest from voters and has been a success overall. The webpage is a model to return to for upcoming elections and for other election offices looking to add a new and fresh spin to their websites.