Change is difficult, whether we’re adapting to small changes in our routine or seismic shifts in our environment. One reason for this struggle is as humans, we rely on a collection of prior knowledge and experiences to form mental models that help us navigate the world. When those mental models are disrupted, we’re easily derailed, making it harder to follow through on our intentions and take action. We can see this in trivial and relatively easy to overcome situations like changes to our daily coffee shop’s ordering processes, or in contexts with more significance. In situations where information is limited and the room for error is slim, like changes to voting processes, the consequences of change can be much more detrimental.
Over the past three years, an unprecedented surge in voting legislation has significantly changed how voters can engage with elections—from how to register, the options they have to cast their ballots, or something as fundamental as their eligibility to participate. And it’s possible there will be even more change in the near future. In 2023 alone, nearly 2,000 voter access or election administration bills were proposed, spanning all 50 states in the U.S. If they’re passed into law, in 2024 many voters, especially those who haven’t cast a ballot since the last presidential election, will be voting under very different circumstances. The changes they encounter, irrespective of whether or not they make voting easier or harder, may disrupt the preexisting mental models that people hold around voting. This could create a potentially disorienting voting experience, and could stand in the way of many people participating at all.
Fortunately, we know from behavioral science that timely and proactive information can go a long way to mitigating this challenge. Election officials are the most knowledgeable and trusted sources of voting information and are well positioned to help voters successfully navigate a changing election landscape. At ideas42, we’ve worked with many state and local election offices to design communications campaigns across email, text, mail, and social media to help voters navigate change in their local processes. Our messages, providing a range of information to help with registration or signing up for ballot tracking, led to surges in action. The results of our work across the country signals how powerful—and necessary—this communication can be in an ever-more unfamiliar landscape.
As election officials begin to develop voter communications for the year ahead, it is essential that they help voters create new mental models around how to cast their ballot. They must also provide timely information that can anticipate and help voters overcome any hassles and hurdles in new voting policies. Because election officials are busy, we’ve developed an easy-to-adopt set of evidence-based messaging and communications strategies for spurring action. Election officials can leverage these strategies to motivate voters as they navigate ongoing changes to election systems and processes. More strategies for effective voter communications are highlighted in our Voter Communications Checklist.
1. Provide voters with clear and actionable information
Reliable, clear, and actionable information about the voting process and requirements helps people more seamlessly navigate voting procedures that may have shifted. With effective communication, voters rely more on the timely information they are receiving and less on priors.
Tips
- Communicating often with voters in plain but official language at moments when the information is relevant and actionable makes it easier for voters to understand and follow through on the steps they need to take to cast their ballot.
- Provide voters with simple messages that convey specific, concrete actions they can easily do (e.g., prompt them to sign up for ballot tracking when mail ballots are sent out).
- Create simple, step-by-step overviews of complex processes that can support voters in tracking their progress.
- Provide voters with simple messages that convey specific, concrete actions they can easily do (e.g., prompt them to sign up for ballot tracking when mail ballots are sent out).
- Establishing consistent and distinct branding early on can help voters recognize official and trusted outreach as the election nears. These cues are useful shortcuts for people to know that they are seeing information they need to pay attention to.
2. Prompt voters to make a plan to follow through on voting
Communication that encourages plan-making is an effective way to preview future steps for voters and reset expectations to meet new realities. Good outreach couples these prompts with links to relevant voting information to make plans more concrete.
Tip
- Encouraging voters to make a simple plan that considers the where, when, and how of voting can be an especially powerful way to promote follow-through on an intention to vote and might also make completing a new or unfamiliar action seem more manageable.
3. Let voters know that help is available, even if they don’t end up using it
It is important that election officials share proactive communications that anticipate voters’ questions and concerns to minimize their experiences of ambiguity and uncertainty.
Tip
- Encouraging voters to make a simple plan that considers the where, when, and how of voting can be an especially powerful way to promote follow-through on an intention to vote and might also make completing a new or unfamiliar action seem more manageable.
These guidelines are good rules-of-thumb for crafting effective communications in changing environments. However, we know that election officials are often bandwidth and resource constrained and that consistent and effective communication can be a time-consuming endeavor. Fortunately, we built a tool called VoterCast to make voter outreach simple and quick.
VoterCast leverages these and other evidence-based communication principles to provide local election officials with tailored, off-the-shelf outreach materials on a wide range of common voting topics. With VoterCast, local election officials can access the resources they need to support people through their entire voter journey, from intention formation to successfully casting a ballot. Voters will get the timely and actionable information they need to adapt to changes, no matter how big or small those changes may be.
