Election websites and voter education

What are best practices in election websites and other voter education?

If you wanted to learn about an election, where would you go? How likely are you to find the information you need?

Two research studies looked at county election websites and printed voter guides. The team learned a lot about how voters (and would-be voters) look for information.

The biggest surprise was how the information journey is organized. Voters start with the ballot,  working their way from the choices they will make on election day to what they need to be able to vote. This is the opposite of the way most guides are organized as a process that starts with eligibility and registration and ends with the results of the election.

We weren’t surprised to learn that many of the sites and brochures contained “election speak” — even when they were trying to write clearly. Words like nonpartisan and overvoted confused, but so did awkward expressions like “close of registration.” It was more compelling evidence that plain language is critical to effective voter information.

Our study of voter guides revealed another shocker: even people who were highly motivated to vote could be derailed by information gaps. Three of 16 participants wanted to vote in the November 2012 General Election, but had problems doing so.

The work on creating voter guides and other information for voters continued with a project from 2013-2017 on voter guides in California that investigated how to create the right information for potential voters, at the right time, in the right place.

Resources

Election design tips