Vol. 102 Designing materials for vote centers and polling places

It is common practice to train the people who will work the polls on Election Day, and election officials to make sure that lessons from training carry into Election Day. In some places, election workers get comprehensive training manuals, while in others, there’s a more minimalist approach. Election workers work hard to make sure to give election workers thorough, accurate, and easy-to-use documentation.

But there’s a fine line between too much information and not enough. As a result, training manuals do not always get used the way Election workers intend – if at all.

There are several reasons why this may be:

  • There is a lot of information to sort through to find the right information.
  • The information is too general or covers too many roles at once.
  • The training manual is not handy when needed.
  • There is not the right information to answer the question.

This guidebook contains information and resources to help create tools for election workers that deliver the right kind of information at the right time and in the right place.

There are 3 tools in this workbook:

Go to:

Section 1. Basic design resources

Section 2. Planning the election worker tools

Section 3. Creating the election worker tools

 

Section 01

Basic design resources

Election illustrations and icon library

Images for the supplies placemat, other tools, or election materials. The library includes a variety of icons, instructional illustrations and other useful images. They are sized for web, print, posters, plus the Adobe Illustrator source file.

→ Go to the civic icons and images library on ElectionTools.org

PowerPoint templates

All 3 tools come as PowerPoint templates. You can download the templates and edit the content to fit the needs for your jurisdiction.

 

Section 02

Planning election worker tools for the precinct/vote center

The main goal of these tools is to deliver the right information in the right place at the right time. When workers have information appropriate for their role and their tasks at hand, that makes it easier for them to do their jobs well. As you learn about these tools, think about what content election workers need, when and where they need it.

Delivering the information at the right place

A useful starting point is to think about how you assign the different election worker roles.  We built these tools around a few starting roles. You may use different roles, combine roles, or assign tasks differently. Think about how this will change how you divide the content.

In many jurisdictions, election workers change roles throughout the day. Using these tools, election workers can swap the information for one role and pick up information for another. This will help them focus only on the role and tasks they are performing for a specific job.

We built these tools with the following roles in mind:

  • Supervisor
  • Assistant Supervisor
  • Entry Greeter
  • Exit Greeter
  • Check-in clerks
  • Ballot clerk
  • Provisional voting clerk

Delivering the information at the right time

Ideally, you want to deliver information to election workers close to the moment when they need it, wherever they are. As you think about how to organize your content into these tools, consider when your election workers need the information. You may want to specify  times, such as 8:00 am. Or think about phases in the election, such as opening or closing the polls.

Delivering the right information

Poll workers go through training, so they know what to do. On Election Day, they often only need reminders and not the full detail. As you go through these templates, think about how much detail someone might need to be reminded what to do next.

The manuals we have collected and analyzed are pretty good for training people. They’re textbooks that can work well for reference material when you’re studying. It’s for reading to learn to do. The templates we’re providing aren’t meant to replace the manual. They supplement the manual by presenting the content in a way that makes it easy to read to do a task, in context.

As you look through the tools, think about what each tool offers. While these tools can work alone, they also work best when you have all three in the polling place to support each other. You can pick up these tools all at the same time, or start with one and try the others later.

 

Section 03

Creating the election worker tools

These election worker tools come as sets of templates with sample content. You’ll need to edit the material for your own jurisdiction, but this should help get you started.

Follow the links to design notes and tips or download each tool as templates in a zip file.

Supplies placemat

Role-based checklists

Survival guide