Vote centers and polling places: supplies placemat

A visual inventory of the supplies needed at each station.

Election Officials around the country create tools to show election workers the supplies they need on Election Day. Many of these tools use icons or line drawings in a map or layout diagram. We took these great ideas and put them in a format for you and your election workers.

The goal of the supplies placemat is to show election workers what supplies they need and when. This tool relies on a library of icons to help workers identify the supplies, tell them where to find each item, and where the supplies go when they need to be used.

About the templates

First, download the templates:

• 1 PowerPoint template with example content for opening the polls, voting, and closing the polls. Check the master slides for more colors. You can use these for different roles.
• Partial library of icons to use on supplies placemat.

You can get more icons at http://electiontools.org/tool/civic-icons-and-images/.

Supplies placemat

We made the templates to be color-coded to each role in a polling place.

When you select colors for the supplies placemat, use the same colors in other election worker tools or materials for the same role.  For example, make all materials for the supervisor clerks green. Then when supervisor clerks see green, they will know this content is for them.

Look in the master slides in the PowerPoint template to find layouts with other colors.

Opening and closing the polls

1. Who is this for? Include the role for election workers to know they have the placemats meant for them.
2. When is this for? Identify when election workers should use this placemat.
3. Where do election workers find the supplies? Provide specific yet concise instructions for where election workers can find supplies.
4. Where do election workers find the supplies? Include an icon to show election workers where to find supplies. Show these icons in the order that you expect they will complete this task. For example, in the morning election workers may need to first locate the supply box before needing to know what supplies are in the box. At the end of the day, election workers may need to gather the supplies before putting it in the envelope.
5. What supplies can election workers find in the package? Fill in the placemat with icons to represent the supplies election workers should find in each box or envelope. Label each icon.
6. How do I show supplies that come from separate places? Place other material packages in their own column.  

During polling

1. What should go on the table? Include icons to show election workers what supplies they need and suggest how to set it up.  
2. What about small images? If images are too small, you can place them as callouts in the circles to “zoom in.”

Packaging the placemats

The placemats are designed for paper that is 8.5×11-inches (letter size). You can print on back and front to save paper and keep costs down. We recommend laminating these placemats and using them with a dry-erase marker. Election workers can use the dry-erase marker to check off the boxes next to the supplies to make sure they can account for all supplies. Workers can use the same placemats each day the vote center is open.