Center for Civic Design

1/ Use space on the cover for useful information. Make it easy to find out what’s inside the booklet, what elections it covers, who wrote it, and who it is for.

2/ Be specific about dates and deadlines. Voters want to know the actual dates to help them make sense of all the steps in an election. Show real dates for the current election, not just formulas.

3/ Provide real contact information, not just a website. People who may not have web access or email are especially likely to use printed booklets or flyers for election information.

4/ Start with a roadmap. An overview helps voters understand the scope of the information in the booklet. Without a table of contents or other roadmap, people get lost in the details.

5/ Don’t make voting look complicated (even if it is). Show the most important or most common options first, then explain exceptions.

6/ 1 page: 1 topic. (really!) This makes it easier to scan through the booklet for specific topics. Information doesn’t get buried at the end of the page. Impatient readers miss details. Lower literacy readers skip when they get confused.

7/ 1 topic: 1 heading. Good headings make the booklet easy to scan quickly. It is possible to have too many headings. Don’t put more than one topic in one heading.

8/ Write headings as questions. People read election booklets looking for answers, so it’s easy for them to recognize their questions. Good questions show that the elections office understands what information voters need.