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Editor's Notes

• #6: Over the next 30 minutes we will discuss the Civic Engagement Toolkit for Local Election Officials. After the webinar you will have a clear understanding of the problem the Toolkit is seeking to tackle, who our project partners are, and the project timeline. You will also hear about some of the submissions that we’ve received from election officials so far. We will have plenty of time for folks to ask questions. And, ultimately, we see this as an opportunity to increase participation in the project. Participation can be submitting your ideas or volunteering to test tools or helping us promote the Toolkit among your network of election officials.
• #8: As defined by the American Psychological Association, Civic engagement is individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern. Civic engagement is an extremely broad term. It is more than just voting. Civic engagement also includes being involved in a neighborhood association, completing a community survey, volunteering to clean up a city park, and writing letters to elected officials, to name a few activities. And what all of these actions have in common is a person has access to the information they need to participate. Both citizens AND local government experience challenges when it comes to access to information. Here are three examples of those challenges:
• #9: When we have questions about local real estate prices or where to get the best pizza in town, we are likely to look for answers online. It’s no surprise that when we have questions about elections, we go online to search for answers. When people look for civic information online, are they able to find it? In 2013, the Center for Civic Design found that over 900 counties in the U.S. did not have an election website. That is 1 out of 3 counties with no election information online. This number does not include the counties that have websites that are difficult to navigate on mobile devices or websites that have out-of-date information.
• #10: According to research, 40% of US adults have low literacy. Low literacy is not the same as illiteracy. Low literacy is an inability to read and write well enough to perform tasks in society or on the job. In the U.S., this is generally categorized as having a reading level at or below seventh grade. When a local government is publishing civic information, are they presenting it in a way that everyone can understand?
• #11: Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy. We probably all remember the image of people waiting for six or more hours to vote on Election Day in 2012. This was an example of people who were motivated to vote, they had the information they needed to be in the right place on the right date, and challenges still existed for them to participate. Are we making voting convenient for people, so it fits our busy lives?
• #12: Voters, candidates, the media – all of us – depend on local election offices for official and nonpartisan information when we look for answers to fundamental questions about elections. Questions like “What’s on my ballot?” “Can I vote by mail?” “Where do I vote?”. Election officials are the liaison between local, state, and federal politics and the voter. You are responsible for running smooth elections. Your office is a community information hub.
• #13: We believe the answer to this question is a resounding YES!
• #15: The Civic Engagement Toolkit will be a website with tested resources, along with step-by-step instructions, that any election official can use. This is more than just a website. The website is simply a communication platform. The Toolkit will be a library of tools that you can use to serve your community.
• #16: We partnered with the Center for Civic Design and three local election offices – Cook County Clerk, Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections, and Inyo County Clerk-Recorder-Registrar – and together we made our pitch to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation News Challenge on Elections earlier this year. By partnering with jurisdictions that are rural, urban, and suburban, we are able to understand the different needs of election officials and work on creating a toolkit that is useful for everyone, regardless of the election office’s budget or size.
• #17: So, how will we develop the Toolkit? Here is a timeline of our activities. We are currently in the information gathering phase. We are asking election officials to share their ideas with us using a quick online form, and we’ve also received written submissions as well. In total, we’ve received over 50 submissions so far, and Kurt will share a summary of those in a bit. In December, we will meet with a group of two dozen election officials to prioritize what tools should be in the Toolkit. We will accomplish this by doing a deep dive needs analysis. In January, we will circle up again for a second workshop to think through the actual design and layout of the Toolkit website. We will accomplish this through rapid prototyping exercises. Between January and April, we will be writing user guides for the tools that will be featured on the Toolkit website and testing the usability of website. We will be testing both in-person and remotely through our test kitchen of local election officials who volunteered to test the tools. Along the way we are also promoting the Toolkit through webinars, like this, and through presentations at conferences across the country.
• #19: WHITNEY: Great. We have a plan to build a website that will feature tested tools and written user guides. But what kind of tools will it feature? KURT: Thanks, Whitney. Ultimately, we anticipate 12-15 tools. Like Whitney said, we’re still in the information gathering and tool submission stages, but I want to introduce 3 tools that will end up being part of the kit.
• #20: One is a tool we’re especially proud of: the local election website template. Using research from the Center for Civic Design on how people look for election information online, we built a plug-n-play website template that is lightweight and mobile-friendly. Along with the template, we created a written user guide and short video tutorials that any election can follow, regardless of their background in technology. No coding required!
• #21: The toolkit will also include a set of civic icons and illustrations that election officials can use in printed voter guides or on their website. Visual elements help guide low-literacy use content. When used effectively, civic icons and illustrations can communicate important election information to new and potential voters. These are icons and illustration samples from the Center for Civic Design.
• #22: Local election provide important information to the public, but on a more basic level, they’re also responsible for simply running smooth elections. In addition to voter-facing tools, the Toolkit will also feature behind-the-scenes tools including this resource allocation calculator developed by Mark Pelczarski, featured on the Presidential Commission on Election Administration website. You can input some basic data, like anticipated voter turnout, into the calculator to determine how to allocate resources to minimize voter wait times. The calculator is a really powerful tool, not just for managing voter wait times, but it can also help you make the case to your county commissioners or budget analyst when you need to hire additional election workers or buy more voting booths.
• #23: All tools in the Toolkit will have four criteria in common. Each tool will be affordable, and in most cases this means that it will be free. Because election officials wear many hats and may have a wide range of tech skills, each tool will be tested for ease of use and paired with written, step-by-step instructions. To make sure the tools are meaningful to your jurisdiction and fit your image, written instructions will include how to customize the tool and make it work for your office. And finally, each tool will be practical. This means that the tools aren’t just tech for tech’s sake; they’re designed to do specific jobs and help you with recognized problems.
• #24: That said, you might be wondering what kind of tools we’re starting to see among those already submitted for consideration. There’s already a good amount of variety. Communication tools – designed for reaching the public as well as for internal use. New solutions for training and managing poll workers. A number of different data management platforms. Partnerships – with the media, with colleges and universities, with private vendors. Sophisticated maps to manage address changes, district look-ups, and so on. And there are also systems for managing mail ballots and other mailing tasks.
• #25: So, as I said a minute ago, we feel it’s important for the tools to be practical. One way that we’ve tried to ensure they are is by listening to election officials. They’re sharing with us the tools that have worked for them, and they’re telling us the problems that they have and the tools they’re looking for. Mary Wheeler-Jones offered to share the picture guide for poll workers to set up equipment that she’s used in her election office in St. Louis, Missouri. Tim Tsujii offered to share a collection of press release templates for notices, deadlines, turnout/data, updates, FAQs, board meeting schedules, etc. that his office in Guilford County, North Carolina developed.
• #26: And here’s a look at some of the things that election officials are telling us they’re looking for. In her office in Boone County, Missouri, Wendy Noren is looking for text messaging capabilities to reach out to poll worker and voters. And Natalie Mercado of Mercer County, New Jersey says that she wishes her office had its own website to update on a regular basis to engage her community
• #27: By now hopefully you’ve gotten a good sense of the Toolkit, its contours, our goals for the project. What questions do you have about it? If you want to ask a question, raise your hand, and then we’ll call on you and unmute you and you can speak. If your sound doesn’t end up working, don’t worry – just click the “talk bubble” icon and type your question into chat.