Whether they’re made by election officials, community groups, or a collaboration between multiple parties, the best voter guides help voters learn about how, when, and where to vote, as well as introducing them to the candidates and questions on the ballot.

Center for Civic Design developed these resources while working with election officials and community groups in California.

When people don’t feel included in civic life, they need to see their rights and responsibilities spelled out. The Center for Civic Design worked with the League of Women Voters of California Education Fund to gather community input from 86 Californians in government buildings, community centers, a community college, and a library. Together, we developed the California Voter Bill of Rights.

On September 1, 2015, Governor Jerry Brown signed State Bill 505, ensuring that election information is written in plain, accessible, and easily understandable language, drawing on our work on this project.

ElectionTools.org is a collection of free resources developed by the Center for Civic Design and the Center for Tech and Civic Life to help election officials improve the voter experience.

Community groups and advocates are also encouraged to use tools like the election illustrations to add no nonsense visuals to help low english proficiency voters.

Center for Civic Design boiled down the essentials of good design into a series of pocket-sized field guides made especially with local election officials in mind.

Columbia World Projects, in collaboration with the School of International and Public Affairs, and the New York City Civic Engagement Commission, hosted a series of convenings to share how, if, and when digital tools can be used to better engage New York City’s communities and enhance government responsiveness to the needs and concerns of residents.

Jennifer Morrell, a partner at Elections Group, explains what happens when teams retrieve ballots from a ballot drop box during election season.

This 4-part series on Risk-Limiting Audits lays out guidance for elections administrators to save time and money, and ensure that the correct candidate won.

The report draws on Jennifer Morrell’s 8 years of experience managing local elections, success implementing Colorado’s first statewide risk-limiting audit, and time spent traveling across the country working on post-election audits.