Small changes make a big difference in vote-by-mail

Whether you call it “absentee voting,” “vote-by-mail,” or “vote at home,” more voters cast their vote on ballots delivered directly to them than ever before. And this trend is on the rise. Over the past couple of years, we worked to research, design, and pilot test vote-at-home envelopes. This newsletter includes a few of the things election administrators could do that are inexpensive, pretty easy to implement with the resources and vendors you have, works with USPS, and are adaptable to your jurisdiction’s legal requirements.

Design changes that make a difference

It’s no small thing to get a ballot delivered to a voter, and getting a marked, attested ballot back in time to be counted. And you might not feel like you have much flexibility in the design of your mail ballot envelopes. There’s so much in statute, your office has specific ways of handling mail ballots, your vendors have specific capabilities. 

There are a few details that we’ve found from testing with real voters in real elections that can help ensure that you’re getting the ballots back that you should get back, and that voters sign where they should. 

Put the signature in a box with an “x”

There is a lot going on on most vote-by-mail envelopes. A lot of text, and often, horizontal rules or borders, surround text or fields that need to be filled. The single most important thing to have in a box is the place where the voter needs to sign. 

Our testing shows that presenting the signature space inside a box helps voters to see that they need to sign and where to do it. It’s also easy for the people in your office to see whether the envelope has been signed. Adding an ‘X’ into the box also signals that a signature is needed. 

Tidy up the voter’s declaration 

You may not be able to translate the declaration to plain language because the exact text is required by law. 

But you can make it neater and easier to skim and read. When it is easier to read, it’s easier to recognize what it is. You can add bullet points without changing the words. And when you put it in cozy proximity to the signature box, voters can tell what they’re signing for.

Use one color for each type of envelope

Most importantly, use a different color for ballot envelopes heading to voters and those returning to the election office. It creates recognizable consistency and makes vote-by-mail envelopes more recognizable to support statewide voter education campaigns.

The color bar acts as a visual anchor on the envelopes and can help voters and election administrators identify different types of ballot envelopes easily. We’ve designed a color scheme that uses blue for any envelope going to the voter and has a selection of colors to cover all the return envelopes.

The colors are also helpful for the USPS because it helps distinguish envelopes from other types of mail as well as envelopes on their way to voters from those returning to the elections office. The color wraps around the edge of the envelope so it is visible in a stack of mailers making them easy to identify at the postal facility. 

Vote-by-mail — 3 small things

• Make a signature box and mark it with an X. 
• Turn the affirmation into a bulleted list. 
• Use color as a code for different types of envelopes. 

Resources 

• Webinars: Vote-at-home training for election officials from Center for Technology and Civic Life, Center for Civic Design and Vote at Home Institute
  1. Implementing envelope best practices
  2. Preparing helpful supplementary materials
  3. Best practices for tracking and reporting
• Scaling up in 2020 – CCD’s guide to the decisions and policies needed to support the implementation of mail-in ballots for the 2020 elections
• A toolkit of designs for scaling up vote by mail has more free samples and templates.
• Project: Vote by mail envelopes
• Showcase: Instructions on vote-by-mail ballots build confidence in Arapahoe County.

This was originally published in our Civic Designing newsletter. Subscribe on Mailchimp to get election design tips delivered to your mailbox.