A redesign of the New York State ballot. Three (3) versions were created to be more voter-friendly. This project was a pursuit of discovering why the ballot exists in its current condition and what I can do to make it more user friendly.
3 ballot designs were created with varying weight on legality and best design practice.
The existing ballot tried to be more inclusive, but poor design constraints created confusion.
There is a lot of research around ballot design and was included in all my concepts.
Voters, candidates, parties, representatives, and ballot companies must all be considered in the design.
My roommate and I voted absentee for the November 2018 election. When we looked at both of our ballots, mine from Texas, and hers from New York, we were shocked at the starkly different styles and methods that our precincts used to elect officials. The Texas ballot has plenty of room for improvement, but I found my roommate’s ballot particularly troubling.
Around the time I decided to pursue this project, there was an interview on the NPR show All Things Considered about confusing ballot design. During that segment I learned about the Center for Civic Design (CCD), a non-profit organization dedicated to improving ballots and voter abilities across the country. I reached out to them, and they pointed me to a Medium article with many resources to begin my research.
Before designing any ballot, I imposed the following restrictions on myself.
From the sketch, I chose to create 3 new designs weighing the state's legal requirements against good design practices. The content is from an original November 6, 2018 New York Orange County ballot, which I’m calling the “current ballot”.
Unless otherwise noted, all these ballots follow the requirements set forth by Assembly Bill A9607 and EAC recommendations pertaining to ballot design.
If you like what you see and want to work together, get in touch!
asher.d.friedman@gmail.com