Answering voters' questions at county election websites
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Answering voters’ questions at county election websites Dana Chisnell @danachis @ChadButterfly
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Voters think about elections differently from how election administrators do. A presentation to NASED in San Francisco 2014.
Transcript of Answering voters' questions at county election websites
Answering voters’ questions at county election websites
Dana Chisnell
@danachis @ChadButterfly
Answering voters’ questions at county election websites
Dana Chisnell
@danachis @ChadButterfly
What questions did you have about the election?
How did you find out the answers?
Cataloged 147 election websites
Conducted 41 remote moderated usability tests
Cataloging
94% of the population lives in a county that has an elections website
Of 3,057 counties or equivalent, 966 didn’t have websites (31.5%)
“election department” varied by region
Insights
Remote moderated usability testing
What questions did you have about the election?
What questions did you have about the election?
What happened?
Insights
33 of 41 participants looked online for answers
23 went to county websites
Insights
None had been to a state election website
Voters are ballot-centricthey’re focused on that act, not conscious of the overall process
What’s on the ballot?
?
?
?
?
??
!?
Bad newsVoters don’t think to look in the polling place lookup widget for ballots
They don’t expect to have to give personal information to get their ballot
They’re unaware that their ballot could be unique
What’s on the ballot?
What are my options for voting?
absentee early voting Election Day
what’s the deadline to apply?
what do I have to do to get one?
when is it due?
where do I vote? where do I vote?
what’s the deadline to apply?
what do I have to do to get one?
when is it due?
where do I vote? where do I vote?
who is in office now?
do I need ID to vote?
what’s the deadline for registering?
But sites showed nearly the opposite process.
Elections = process
1. register
2. voting options
3. polling place location
4. voter ID
5. current office holders
6. military and overseas voters
7. sample ballot
What to do
Establish...you’re on a government website
it’s the election website
this is the source you want
when the next election is
What’s on the ballot?
How do I vote if I can’t get to the polling place?
Who are my reps now, and what districts am I in?
Where do I vote?
Do I have to show ID?
Priority content
Help voters find your website.
Connect your website to other government sites.
Answer the question: ‘What’s on the ballot?’
Group navigation to answer voters’ questions.
Help visitors know what site they are on and what will be covered there.
Write links that use words voters use.
Put the most important information in the main menu or the center.
Help voters find ballot information.
Use words that voters use in links, headings, and graphics.
Help voters see at a glance what each chunk of information is about.
NOI & DemocracyWorks
pilot
(funded by Omidyar Network)
2012-13: found voters’ mental models are opposite LEO process orientation
2014: tested sites with people who are blind or have low vision
29 websites from a range of jurisdictions from the largest to fairly small
participants used their own assistive technology
Find out date of the next election n=5237 succeeded (71%)
Find out what’s on the ballotn=5534 succeeded (62%)
Find information about accessible votingn=5427 succeeded (50%)
all the sites had issues
participants using screen magnifiers were more likely to be successful than those using screen readers
participants using sites from larger jurisdictions reported more problems
Field Guides To Ensuring Voter Intent
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civicdesigning.org/fieldguides
!
!
Thank you.
Dana Chisnell
centerforcivicdesign.org
anywhereballot.com/library@danachis@ChadButterfly
