Information Design Round-Up: Election Edition
By: Courtney Marchese
Tags: Data Visualization, Civic Engagement, Dataviz, Information Design, Election 2020

Credit (top-left to bot-right): The New York Times, Moritz Stefaner and Alberto Cairo, The Economist, Shirley Wu, Poynter, FiveThirtyEight

Information Design Round-Up: Election Edition

This post is the first in a series dedicated to my favorite information design and data visualization focused on a particular topic, today being the 2020 election. As in my other posts, “favorites” tend to be examples that demonstrate thoughtful data analysis, engaging visualization methods, a cohesive narrative, and a seamless user experience.

The 2020 election season has presented a variety of data visualization opportunities to help inform American citizens. COVID-19 has complicated multiple facets of the election, including voters seeking alternatives to in-person voting (including understanding rules that vary from state to state) and battling disinformation, among other topics. 2020 is also a national census year, emphasizing the United States’ evolving demographics that shift the electorate. Finally, the unexpected results of the 2016 election, for many people, challenged both the legitimacy and the accuracy of political polls that took another hit in 2020.

In evaluating the role of information design in this year’s civic communication, I grouped links by three general topics: voter information, fact-checking and understanding voters, and election forecasting and simulations.

Voter Information

1.Election 2020 (How to Vote in Your State), The Washington Post

The how-to-vote guide is an accessible, simple information design hub. I appreciate that each state is handled individually to allow voters to inquire solely about the state they intend to vote in. Voting information can feel overwhelming with rules and dates that vary by state and — this year — an increased need for absentee and mail-in ballots. It is critical to have a resource like this that walks the user through each step of the voting process in a paced, visual way, free of political jargon, to drive the best possible turnout. The larger Election 2020 feature also has an approachable dashboard showcasing why some states are slower to report election results, what times polls close, and other election day information.

2.Will You Have Enough Time to Vote by Mail in Your State?, The New York Times

NYTimes breaks down what to expect when requesting mail-in ballots in terms of timelines and rules. The article provides information on when first ballots are mailed to voters, the last day to request ballots, postmark deadlines, and ballot due dates, state by state. In doing so, NYTimes identifies four categories of states with the approximate risk associated with last-minute voting by mail. The categories include: states that do not allow enough time for last minute voting by mail (< 3 days to receive and < 3 days to return), states that might allow enough time (3+ days each way), states that do allow enough time (7+ days each way), and states that automatically send ballots to most voters (7+ days each way). In a year that has seen the United States Postal Service threatened, while also experiencing an unprecedented volume of election mail, the article serves as a valuable resource about the overall mail-in voting process and the varying state guidelines.

3.Record-Setting Turnout: Tracking Early Voting in the 2020 Election, The New York Times

Another piece by The New York Times provides some context around the massive voter turnout experienced in 2020, compared with 2016. While it was predicted that more early voting would occur this year due to the pandemic, it is evident in this article at-a-glance that turnout would shatter records before even knowing the election results. The country’s overview graphic is engaging in itself by easily capturing the total vote in 2016 as compared with early voting in 2016, and early voting in 2020 (both in-person and mail-in). The values reinforce what had already been widely predicted to be a massive voter turnout, and contextualizes with numbers from the 2016 presidential election. It is also interesting to look for any relationships and patterns that might exist because of COVID-19 rates in each state, and/or their historical political make-up. A series of visuals within the article further develop the early voting narrative by drilling down into requests by party affiliations and detailed state-by-state information regarding absentee ballots and voter turnout.

4.Voting by Mail, Reuters

Following precise return instructions is critical to making the vote count, assuming a voter has already learned the necessary steps for receiving their mail-in ballot and the rules for their state. In some cases, state policies automatically allow a vote-by-mail option, whereas others require a valid excuse or consider COVID-19 as an excuse in 2020. This short Reuters piece specifically tackles the detailed process of determining state policies and mailing a valid ballot, in a simple graphic style that I appreciate as a designer.

5.Make My Vote Count Party, Shirley Wu (and team)

This site is a little more edgy than those of mainstream media, with a focus on “delivering bite-size stories for bite-size actions.” As a self-proclaimed “Ordinary Citizen,” Wu digs into data on topics like state elections’ effect on daily life, gerrymandering, mail-in ballot rejection, among other sharable issues. There is a community-driven feel to the content choices made on the site, like featuring the information as Instagram stories and sharing all the code for creating the graphics in Observable. These choices encourage participation on the part of the user to share the content, and a means and inspiration to contribute to civic communication. Subscribe to this one to track post-Election Day developments.

Fact-Checking and Understanding Voters

1.Waves of Interest: Tracing Google Search Interest in U.S. Election Years, Moritz Stefaner and Alberto Cairo (and team)

While not directly linked to the election in a traditional sense, Waves of Interest examines which topics capture Americans’ attention during U.S. election years based on Google search trends. As for top 2020 trends? Electoral fraud, opinion polls, postal voting, and fact checks have been the leading political searches. The site breaks down search data by topic, changes over an election year, and changes by state, offering a unique perspective on where American interests and concerns lie. The seamless interactivity allows the user to explore interest in search terms by time and place. The site is an engaging and insightful alternative to the usual political opinion poll.

2.Fighting the Infodemic: The #CoronaVirusFacts Alliance, Poynter

Again, not necessarily tied directly to the election itself, Poynter focuses on false and misleading claims about COVID-19. The site notes that “when the new coronavirus pandemic started, many hoaxes were about the origin of the virus. Then, the alliance detected falsehoods on how the disease spreads, and cures and prevention. Now we are finding hoaxes about religious groups, politicians, and the impact of COVID-19 on a country’s health system.” Each topic’s most recent misinformation emerges in the center of the packed circles, with older claims spreading outward and fading gradually, representing passed time. COVID-19 evolved into an election topic as tensions have risen between the Trump Administration, the CDC, and other leading health experts. The Poynter site presents the narrative quality of waves of misinformation worldwide by topic and includes a fact-checker, thanks to the collaborative nature of the CoronaVirusFacts Alliance.

3.Voter Center, USAFacts

This is a useful hub of data combining longitudinal trends and stated political stances. While there are a lot of data to sift through on this site, the Voter Center is an insightful overview of candidate positions on specific topics. Each topic breaks down into key metrics tracked over various periods (as applicable). Perhaps the most sobering aspect of the data is that categories remain relatively stagnant over time, regardless of who is in power. It would be interesting to contextualize the data presented by overlaying the presidential and Congressional majority over time. However, one glaring usability issue is that the numbers are a little misleading at first glance, requiring that the user check off a box to see adjusted rates for population, inflation, and so on.

4.The Changing Racial and Ethnic Composition of the U.S. Electorate, Pew Research Center

Pew Research Center has long been a respected non-partisan organization that does a particularly good job reporting demographic trends. One of the 2020 election storylines has been the evolving racial and ethnic make-ups of the United States and the associated values of those different groups. Pew’s interactive map allows users to explore the racial and ethnic shifts in eligible voters across the United States. For example, past data show that although the Hispanic population has more than doubled since 2000 (while White eligible voters have decreased in all fifty states), their turnout still lags significantly behind White and Black voters. This interesting electorate angle will undoubtedly be revisited and analyzed at length in the future.

Forecasting and Simulations

1.FiveThirtyEight Politics

There has been much discussion about the inaccurate projections that preceded Donald Trump’s election in 2016. The FiveThirtyEight podcast has reminded listeners that they gave Trump a 28.6% chance of winning, which was significantly higher than other organizations. Influenced by lessons learned in 2016, they put a lot of thought into their 2020 model and website, focused on a few key goals to help their audience have a more accurate and holistic understanding of the election. Constructing a narrative rather than one-off data visuals was important to them this go-around to educate voters on how the election process works. They supplement this narrative by helping users find other content like videos, podcasts, and stories to further contextualize their model.

While FiveThirtyEight explored several ways of visualizing their forecast, they explain that, “the final version is modular and the forecast pieces are visualized on cards. Each card gives the reader a different lens on the election. Some also offer a chance to explore deeper by switching tabs or hovering on elements like dots or lines. This structure also helped us nail our goal of designing for flexibility.” Besides the thoughtful forecasting model that underlies the site, FiveThirtyEight’s 2020 forecast represents an ideal balance between data, storytelling, and a seamless experience that prioritizes user focus.

2.Forecasting the U.S. Elections, The Economist

There are a few similarities between the Economist and FiveThirtyEight. However, the visual components of The Economist’s 2020 forecast are reminiscent of FiveThirtyEight’s 2016 design. As with other predictions this year, The Economist emphasizes the notion of running simulations that project POSSIBLE outcomes, rather than absolute results. Their “How States Move Together” map is particularly interesting in exploring the similarity between states based on their political and demographic profiles. The simulation intends to show what could be expected if “the race moves or polls are biased in similar amounts in like states” and helps in understanding some of the typical patterns we see each election.

3.The Battleground States Biden and Trump Need to Win 270, The New York Times

The New York Times houses arguably one of the most comprehensive election results dashboard and produced several interactive pieces in the lead-up to the election. In their battleground simulation, users can experiment with electoral math by dragging states into each candidate’s circle. Like FiveThirtyEight, the NYTimes piece focuses on educating voters about potential outcomes and the likelihood of each, based on historical and demographic data.

4. How Turnout and Swing Voters Could Get Trump or Biden to 270 (Design Your Own Scenario), The Washington Post

The Washington Post is another news source with a well-designed, comprehensive election results dashboard. They also have a “design your own scenario” piece that focuses on demographic impact and swing voters. They explain that “this analysis helps illustrate a long-running argument in political science: is it a better strategy to try to win over swing voters or to persuade people who will probably support you actually to vote?” They admit that the analysis is a simplification of the actual election to allow one change at a time and they explain the dynamics and complexities at play to help deepen voters’ understanding of the process. The piece also sheds light on the purpose and limitation of some of the highest-quality data sources, including the Census Bureau, the American National Election Studies validated voter survey, network exit polls, and the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES).

I hope you enjoyed this roundup of U.S. election information design from around the web. What awesome designs did I miss? Comment with your favorites (from this list or elsewhere)!

Courtney Marchese is an award-winning designer and professor with over a decade of professional experience specializing in data visualization, user experience design, and design research. Her forthcoming book from Bloomsbury Press, Information Design for the Common Good, explores the critical role of information design and data visualization related to the visual explanation of some of today’s most challenging human-centered concerns, including social, political, environmental, and global health issues.