I Am Woman Watch Me Vote Election 2024 SVG

Research shows a need for clearer visual communication in electoral ballot design in the United States. The current design process, overseen by each individual county’s Board of Elections, leads to poorly-designed ballots affecting the voters’ ability to accurately make their selections when voting. For example, some voters make too many selections in certain contests, and voters also report casting unintentional votes because of unclear mark-making devices on the ballots (such as misaligned punch holes or confusing arrows). A redesign and implementation of a national standard for the electoral ballots in the US will lead to a more democratic process when it comes to voting (a process that is the essence of democracy in and of itself). The redesign will also make the act of voting less complex and intimidating for the user. Through this project, a standard format for ballot design in the US will be developed. This standard will be able to be implemented for any county regardless of its number of candidates or issues. The project will be demonstrated via prototype ballots, in either print or digital or both formats. The target audience for this project is registered American voters, who would be exposed to the redesigned, standardized ballot during elections. User testing will be conducted on a wide range of individuals of all ages (over 18), all genders, all political affiliations, and all income and education levels.  This project will produce a ballot that will not only be more clear than current ballot designs but that can also be reproduced on a national level. In being realistic, the current electoral process in the United States must be acknowledged, as well as the existing guidelines for ballot design (although the project may very well stray from or discard them altogether). In the standardization of the ballots, the project must also consider that elections are held by county, and that some counties will naturally have more items on their ballots than others. If all goes well the redesigned national standard will be able to account for this.