When we make lists of the kinds of source documents users can upload to DocumentCloud, they can get pretty long. DocumentCloud is court filings, hearing transcripts, testimony, legislation, lab reports, memos, meeting minutes, correspondence. I can say with absolute confidence that in all of our planning, “ballots” never once came up as the sort of document a news organization might want to annotate for readers. Our relentlessly creative users have shown us otherwise.
This summer, the Memphis Commercial Appeal rounded out its guide to August’s primary elections with a sample ballot. Their digital content editor told us that many readers who’d missed the sample ballot in the print edition turned to the version online as primary day approached. Earlier this month, they added the general election ballot to that guide.
New York Ballots
WNYC, New York City’s NPR affiliate, also published a few ballots this summer. In an effort to comply with a 2002 federal law that mandates significant updates to voting systems in each state, New York City introduced paper ballots for the 2010 primary election, replacing the city’s famously arcane voting machines. One look at the new design and everyone was up in arms, proclaiming its absurdity, but WNYC actually invited a group of ballot design experts to review the city’s new ballots. Their findings: the ballot was confusing.
Design for Democracy works to increase civic participation, in part through a ballot design project that aims to make voting easier and more accurate. WNYC used Design for Democracy’s feedback to annotate a sample ballot on their blog, offering readers vital voting advice.
When the city released sample ballots for November’s general election, a local think tank pointed out that the instructions erroneously advise voters to mark the oval above their candidate’s name. In fact, the relevant ovals appear below candidate’s names. WNYC highlighted the issue by embedding a sample ballot on their blog. Apparently the “oval above” language was mandated by state law. Don’t believe me? See for yourself — WNYC posted the legislation, with the relevant passage highlighted.
From now on, my laundry list of things DocumentCloud catalogs will most definitely include ballots.