This presidential election is like no other, and the combination of an extremely fraught contest and a global pandemic is putting the electoral system in a pressure cooker. There are already long lines to vote in cities around the country—and even so, early voters are turning out and casting ballots in record numbers. And polling sites are creaking forward to meet the demand.
Back in May, a team of designers from Stanford University’s design institute, called the d.school, launched an initiative to help reduce major areas of stress for poll workers. Now, they’re working with officials to implement these tools to help poll workers perform their duties more safely and efficiently—and in the same stroke, protect voter enfranchisement and reduce the health risks of casting your ballot.
Two local poll workers had already been working on tools to simplify the process. D.school used these as a starting point and collaborated with the Philadelphia nonprofit Committee of Seventy, poll workers, and local designer Jeanne Maier to create a set of new visual tools and resources. The set includes cards that poll workers can use to quickly determine eligibility requirements, like a list of accepted forms of voter ID. There’s also a decision tree card to help poll workers determine a person’s voting status and subsequent steps to process their ballot. This “will mitigate stress and help them feel like they have the resources they need to make decisions,” Janka says.
The team also helped streamline and expand an existing tool: QR code signs that voters can scan while in line to check their voter registration status and make sure they’re at their correct voting station. Together, they gave it a look consistent with the overall suite of resources and made it available in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
