Plan for the election home stretch

October 21, 2026

A collection of quick, practical tools to help election officials prepare for the final weeks before Election Day.

What should poll workers say when a voter needs to vote provisionally?

September 26, 2026

A new resource to help poll workers explain provisional voting clearly and confidently to voters.

What should poll workers do if federal agents or ICE arrive at a polling place?

September 25, 2026

Guidance and training materials to help election officials prepare poll workers for encounters with federal agents, including ICE.

Be part of our research

August 6, 2026

We are seeking participants to provide feedback on sample designs of mail from election offices.

When Something Happens

August 3, 2026

Customizable social media messaging for election officials to share clear, calm, and accurate information when it matters most.

What we’ve learned about designing for new voting methods

July 28, 2026

These new ways of voting bring promise of a stronger democracy, but also require new and sometimes unfamiliar ballot designs.

List maintenance notices that work

June 23, 2026

How CCD helped the Rhode Island Department of State design voter list maintenance mailers that recipients would recognize, trust, understand, and respond to.

Good design keeps ballot envelopes moving

May 27, 2026

A mail ballot envelope has a lot to accomplish — here's what it takes to design one that works for voters and for USPS.A mail ballot envelope has a lot to accomplish — here's what it takes to design one that works for voters and for USPS.

What we know about writing ballot questions that give voters confidence

April 9, 2026

Plain language ballot questions help voters understand their choices, vote with confidence, and make sure their vote reflects their own opinion.

What election offices learned from our goal-setting tool

April 2, 2026

Learn how election offices across the country are using our nonpartisan Setting Goals in Election Operations toolkit to turn post-election insights into concrete, actionable plans.

The new rule on accessibility: Not as hard as you think!

February 5, 2026

An overview of the new rule from the Department of Justice on the accessibility of web content and mobile apps provided by state and local governments, including election offices.

2025 Annual Report

January 27, 2026

Read about our year of impact on elections in our 2025 Annual Report

Turning ideas into action: a new toolkit for goal setting in election operations

November 6, 2025

Setting goals in election operations, a practical guide to help election offices move from reflection to action after an election debrief.

A new step-by-step technical guide to building accessible forms in InDesign

September 27, 2025

Our new technical guide walks you through the process of building accessible PDF forms

Sean Wang is the Center for Civic Design’s new Executive Director

September 15, 2025

Sean first joined CCD as Deputy Director in 2024. In addition, we’re thrilled that Whitney Quesenbery, our co-founder and previous Executive Director, will take on the new role of Chief Program Officer.

Form letters that actually inform

September 2, 2025

A detailed description of how we redesigned a form letter for New Hampshire in a way that's clear, informative, and helpful

Testing RCV materials in 7 languages

August 29, 2025

Learn about how King County Elections (KCE) conducted a multilingual usability study with 7 languages for new voting materials

Help voters navigate the polling place with better signage

July 30, 2025

Good signage makes voting easier for everyone. Our new toolkit shows best practices and templates for polling place signage.

Building stronger community relationships

June 30, 2025

Effective voter outreach depends on partnerships. Here are 3 ways that we have adapted our work to make projects with partnerships more successful.

Conversation starters to improve your poll worker training

June 3, 2025

Our latest research led to a set of conversation starters — practical questions that election offices can use to reflect on and improve their poll worker training.

Designing election dashboards that inform and build trust

April 18, 2025

Here are a few tips and ideas from the Michigan Voting Dashboard that can help you decide how to display election data you’re working with.