The following best practices report was created by AIGA Design for Democracy on behalf of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). It contains guidelines and samples for the design of ballots—optical scan and touchscreen (direct-recording electronic or DRE)—and polling place voter information materials. Legislation, design principles and extensive research with voters, experts, election officials, poll workers and voting equipment providers heavily inform these resources. The report also summarizes research findings and offers insights about design planning and implementation. For summary recommendations, view the top 10 election design guidelines. For more information about the project, view our EAC project case study. For help implementing the guidelines in this report, please visit Government officials: Get help.
Full best practices report
Effective Designs for the Administration of Federal Elections (6.6 MB, 266 pages)
Report by section
Select desired report section(s) 1–8 and download. Sample and image files are offered further below.
- Introduction
Provides an overview of the report scope and research methods; advises on how to use the report.1-Introduction (56 KB, 8 pages)
- Voter information materials
Includes planning tools, best practices and sample, HAVA-compliant, printable files for polling place posters, tabletop information and more, in one or two languages.
Select desired material samples from the table below.2–Voter Information Materials (2.1 MB, 65 pages)
- Optical scan ballots
Includes planning tools, best practices and design guidelines covering the four basic content areas of a ballot (election information, ballot instructions, ballot navigation and voting questions); provides sample designs and specifications for ballots in one or two languages, and one or two colors.
Select desired ballot samples and images from the table below.3–Optical Scan Ballots (976 KB, 57 pages)
- Full-face DRE ballots
Includes planning tools, best practices and design guidelines covering the four basic content areas of a ballot (election information, ballot instructions, ballot navigation and voting questions); provides sample designs and specifications for ballots in one or two colors.
Select desired ballot samples from the table below.4–Full-face DRE Ballots (384 KB, 25 pages)
- Rolling DRE ballots
Note: Sample ballots illustrated in this section are more conceptual than those provided for optical scan ballots, as variation across touchscreen voting equipment is much broader.
Includes planning tools and best practices; describes the sequence of ballot screens and interactions required to deliver content and support tasks in the voting process (select language, vote, review, cast); offers sample screens and specifications.
Select ballot samples featuring example screens and states from the table below.5–Rolling DRE Ballots (2.4 MB, 37 pages)
- Research report: Nebraska pilot test
Offers insights resulting from the real-election use of draft optical scan ballot and polling place material designs—from production process to Election Day.6–Nebraska pilot test (476 KB, 17 pages)
- Research report: Nine research events
Summary of the nine other research activities comprising the user-centered process that helped ground best practice recommendations in legislative, budgetary, technical and voter realities.7–Nine research events (1.4 MB, 54 pages)
- Appendix
Introduces author/contractor AIGA Design for Democracy and all report contributors.8–Appendix (36 KB, 3 pages)
Sample and image files by section
For report sections 2–5, files containing sample materials and ballot designs are provided for viewing and editing. For section 3 (optical scan ballots), image files containing instructional illustrations and icons are also provided.
All sample files are available in both PDF and InDesign formats, image files are in TIFF and Illustrator formats. Election officials may wish to view PDFs and TIFFs. Only professional designers should seek InDesign (INDD) and Illustrator (EPS) files.
Designers will need InDesign and Illustrator CS2 (or higher) software for Mac or PC. Ideally, designers will have access to the Univers font family (Light, Bold for ballots; Roman, Black for voter information materials); other sans serif fonts may be substituted.
Section 2: Voter information materials
Note: 80 samples are offered. For information regarding their display, printing instructions and fulfillment of HAVA mandates, please refer to report section 2, pages 2.6–2.7.
All voter information materials as PDFs (2.6 MB, ZIP)
All voter information materials as InDesign CS2 files (49.2 MB, ZIP)
Material sample | Language | PDF file(s) | See report page(s): |
---|---|---|---|
Voters' Bill of Rights |
English English/Spanish English/Chinese |
2.23 2.57 2.47 |
|
Voters' Bill of Rights (binder format) |
English English/Spanish |
2.26 2.50 |
|
General information (voting violations) |
English English/Spanish English/Chinese |
2.24 2.58 2.48 |
|
Voting violations and penalties (binder format) |
English English/Spanish |
2.27 2.51 |
|
Special voting rules |
English English/Spanish English/Chinese |
2.25 2.59 2.49 |
|
Voting instructions |
English English/Spanish English/Chinese |
2.28 2.60 2.52 |
|
Voting instructions (booth format) |
English |
2.28 2.52 |
|
Voting instructions (tabletop format) |
English English/Spanish |
2.29 2.53 |
|
Sample ballot (door format) |
English English/Spanish English/Chinese |
2.6 2.6 2.6 |
|
Sample ballot (tabletop format) |
English English/Spanish |
2.31 2.55 |
|
Sample ballot (wall format) |
English English/Spanish English/Chinese |
2.59 2.59 2.59 |
|
Precinct identification |
English English/Spanish |
2.16 2.40 |
|
Vote here |
English English/Spanish |
2.13 2.37 |
|
Election official stickers |
English English/Spanish |
2.17 2.41 |
|
Accessible entrance (left directional) |
English English/Spanish English/Chinese |
2.18 2.62 2.42 |
|
Accessible entrance (right directional) |
English English/Spanish English/Chinese |
2.18 2.62 2.42 |
|
Restricted entrance |
English English/Spanish English/Chinese |
2.19 2.63 2.43 |
|
No cell phone |
English |
2.19 2.43 |
|
Information |
English English/Spanish English/Chinese |
2.20 2.63 2.44 |
|
Information (tabletop format) |
English English/Spanish |
2.22 2.46 |
|
Vote by paper ballot (with ovals or, alternatively, arrows) |
English English English/Spanish English/Spanish English/Chinese English/Chinese |
2.20 2.20 2.64 2.64 2.44 2.44 |
|
Vote by paper ballot (tabletop format) |
English English/Spanish |
2.22 2.46 |
|
Vote by touchscreen |
English English/Spanish English/Chinese |
2.21 2.64 2.45 |
|
Vote by touchscreen (tabletop format) |
English English/Spanish |
2.22 2.46 |
|
Turn in ballot here |
English English/Spanish |
2.21 2.45 |
|
Return ballot (tabletop format) |
English English/Spanish |
2.19 2.43 |
|
Vote here banner vertical |
English English/Spanish |
2.12 2.36 |
|
Vote here banner horizontal |
English English/Spanish |
2.12 2.36 |
Section 3: Optical scan ballot samples and imagesNote: Please refer to the design specifications found in report section 3, pages 3.6–3.57 while working with samples and images.
All optical scan ballot samples as PDFs (1 MB, ZIP)
Ballot sample | PDF file(s) | See report page(s): |
---|---|---|
One language, one color |
3.30 |
|
One Asian language, one color |
3.32 |
|
One language, two colors oval |
3.23–3.25 |
|
One language, two colors arrow |
3.26–3.28 |
|
Two languages, one color |
3.54 |
|
Two languages: Asian and English, one color |
3.56 |
|
Two languages, two colors |
3.51–3.53 |
All optical scan ballot images as TIFF files (764 KB, ZIP)
All optical scan ballot images as Illustrator CS2 files (2.6 MB, ZIP)
Image | Color or Language | PNG file(s) | See report page(s): |
---|---|---|---|
Icon to call attention (exclamation point) |
Black Cyan (Blue) |
3.10 3.14 |
|
Icon for “continue” (arrow) |
Black |
3.12 |
|
Illustration of making selection with oval |
N/A |
3.10 |
|
Illustration of writing in name beside oval |
English English-Spanish Asian English-Asian |
Illustration-VersionA_Write_In_1L_English.png Illustration-VersionA_Write_In_2L_Spanish.png |
3.10 3.32 3.38 3.56 |
Illustration of making selection with arrow |
N/A |
3.26 |
|
Illustration of writing in name beside arrow |
English |
3.26 |
|
Illustration of turning in ballot |
English
Asian |
3.10 3.32 |
Section 4: Full-face DRE ballot samples
Note: Please refer to the design specifications found in report section 4, pages 4.6–4.25 while working with samples.
All full-face DRE ballot samples as PDFs (164 KB, ZIP)
All full-face DRE ballot samples as InDesign CS2 files (4.8 MB, ZIP)
Ballot sample | PDF file(s) | See report page(s): |
---|---|---|
One language, two colors |
4.23 |
|
One language, one color |
4.24 |
Section 5: Rolling DRE ballot (touchscreen) samples
Note: These files contain 40 pages of screens and states supporting the range of tasks associated with touchscreen voting. These samples are more conceptual than those provided for optical scan ballots, as variation across touchscreen voting equipment is much broader. Please refer to the flow diagram provided in report section 5, pages 5.7–5.8, as well as to design specifications throughout this report section, while working with samples.
Rolling DRE ballot samples as PDF files (3.6 MB, ZIP)
Rolling DRE ballot samples as InDesign CS2 files (7.8 MB, ZIP)