We’ve updated our Civic Images Library. Ready, set, illustrate!

An image is worth a thousand words, and a civic icon or illustration on a document or form can go a long way to help voters understand the information they need. Both are simple and powerful tools to communicate civic information.

You can use simple icons or instructional illustrations in your voter material to:

  • Draw attention
  • Reinforce messages
  • Highlight different points
  • Make text easier to skim
  • Provide context for multilingual speakers
  • Support voters with low literacy

We encourage the use of both icons and informational illustrations – two different types of visual images. Icons are simple line drawings that represent an object or idea, like the images of a phone and computer in the mail in ballot envelope below. Informational illustrations are more complex images that convey instructions, like the ones under “How to return your ballot” in the example below. Informational illustrations can be presented either as one stand-alone image or as a series to convey a multi-step process.

Image of mail-in ballot envelope

Have you ever wished you had a graphic to help illustrate part of an election process, but didn’t have a way to create them? Or have you ever wanted a whole set of illustrations in a consistent style? The Civic Icons and Images Library is here to help.

We launched the Civic Icons and Images Library back in 2016 and have loved seeing them used across the country. From 2016-2024, it was available through ElectionTools.org. In 2024, the Library moved to it’s new home in the U.S. Alliance for Elections Excellence Resource Library. Recently, we reorganized the files and moved them to Google Drive folders so they are easy to browse and download.

The library started with all the images we created for voter guides. Then we added images for voting by mail, and we’ve just kept going. One of our recent additions came from a project we worked on with the Election Assistance Commission to create the Communicating Election and Post-Election Processes Toolkit. This new collection of Election Processes adds new images for processing ballots after the election.

It’s been one of our most successful toolkits. We were excited to learn that within two days of the EAC toolkit going live, the Alaska Department of State had already started using the materials. When tools are easy to find and use, elections offices can use them easily.

An unfolded pocket guide showing step-by-step of the ballot processing procedures in Alaska. Each step has an accompanying black and white illustration from CCD's civic icons and images library.
The Alaska Department of State adapted images from the CCD Icons and Images Library to use in their guide to absentee and questioned ballot processing.

Recent additions to the original set of images include:

  • Election Processes: Originally created for EAC, these images depict different election steps from voter registration to ballot storage. We’ve also included a Spanish version.
  • Polling Place: Icons of polling place materials, useful for documentation to help poll workers and voters easily navigate the polling place on election day.
  • Healthy Voting: Icons showing how to vote safely during the pandemic.

Here’s an example of an instructional illustration for people updating their cure process to include text options. You can find this one in the Illustrations – Signatures folder.

instructional illustration for people updating their cure process to include text options

And here is another example of an instructional illustration in English and Spanish that shows where to scan the ballot. You can find these in the Election Processes folder.

Instructional illustrations in English and Spanish showing where to scan the ballot

Everyone is welcome to use the images in the library – election officials, civic designers, and vendors alike. You can use these icons online, or for printed materials such as posters, handouts or flyers, or even for your election office’s internal documents, such as presentations for staff.

examples of how Hawaii and Sacramento office of elections used instructional illustrations

Hawaii’s Office of Elections used an icon of an envelope being put into a mailbox to support the message that absentee ballots are on their way to voters (above, left). Sacramento, California (above, right) used a series of informational illustrations to support instructions on how to properly drop off your vote by mail ballot.

You don’t have to use these icons exactly as we created them. They are yours to adapt and make your own. All of the images are available in several different file formats and sizes. Any image that includes a ballot comes with variations for all the main ballot layouts – ovals, rectangles, and arrows on the left and right. We have also included the Illustrator files (AI) for every image so that you can edit them easily.

The Pennsylvania Department of State used images of our library, which they adapted to fit into their web design style.

(left) CCD illustration of an envelope with a ballot. (right) PA Department of State's adaptation of illustration

How to get started using the Civic Icons and Image Library:

You can find our Civic Icons and Images Library in the U.S. Alliance for Elections Excellence Resource Library.

  • This link includes information and guidelines to help you adapt the icons to your uses and use them effectively.
  • Each folder contains instructions and context for the specific illustrations and more information on how to use them.

This library is an ongoing project that has grown organically through lots of requests from election officials and from projects we’ve worked on that needed new illustrations. We’re always happy to hear your ideas or image needs as we look to extend the library and make it more useful. You can reach out to us at hello@civicdesign.org.

Article updated in 2024. In 2024, ElectionTools.org was retired. All resources that were part of it are now part of the U.S. Alliance for Elections Excellence Resource Library.