Election Day is the culmination of months of planning and the time when everyday citizens can express their opinions about their local, state, and national governments. Ensuring voters have a positive experience at the polling place and accurate election results can be released in a timely manner requires voter education, poll worker training, the anticipation of problems at the polling place, efficient counting procedures, and more.

Our pre-election resources focus on topics particular to ranked choice voting (RCV) elections, including ballot design; poll worker, voter, and candidate education; and media outreach.

Designing the ballot is one of the most important tasks in running an election – voters of all education levels must be able to understand how to use the ballot with minimal confusion in order to be sure their vote is correctly communicated through their ballot.

The ballot layout must be easy to understand and guide voters through the sometimes-complicated process of voting with little difficulty. Essentially, the ballot must be designed for maximum usability by the voter.

Just as with ballot layout, ballot language must be designed with the voter in mind. This means that instructions must be clear and give voters enough information to correctly use the ballot, regardless of their education level or voting experience.

The Center for Civic Design (CCD) has a set of Field Guides to Ensuring Voter Intent available to help election officials create the most usable experience for voters.

Volumes 1-3 focus on ballot design. The principles laid out in those volumes apply to ranked choice voting (RCV) ballots the same as they apply to any other kind of ballot.

CCD has also produced a recent report, Designing RCV Ballots Best Practices, which is available below. For more RCV best practices, check out CCD's RCV page. 

Best Practices

Designing RCV Ballots Best Practices (CCD, July 2022)

Principles and Guidelines Report (CCD, Feb. 2017; Ballot Design begins on pg. 44)

Ballot Design Testing Documents (Multi-style)

Grid-Style Ballots

State of Maine RCV Sample Ballots (folder)

Portland, ME RCV Sample Ballots (folder)

Burlington, VT RCV Sample Ballots (folder)

San Francisco, CA RCV Sample Ballot (2019; English & Chinese)

FairVote Model RCV Ballot

Column-Style Ballots

Minneapolis, MN RCV Sample Ballots (folder)

San Francisco, CA RCV Sample Ballot (2018; English & Chinese)

San Francisco, CA RCV Demo Ballot (2015; English & Chinese)

Alameda County, CA RCV Sample Ballot (2010)

Poll workers and poll worker training/education are key to all elections, including ranked choice voting (RCV) elections.

Our RCV educational toolbox is designed to be a five-lesson course in the basics of RCV for those who will participate in conducting an RCV election. The training program also includes a companion workbook with supplemental training content. 

The Resource Center is also gathering examples of poll worker education from around the country as examples to reference; some are provided below. The examples are intended to serve as a guide to planning and developing training material. Training material can be tailored to each jurisdiction's needs and statutes. 

Examples to Reference

North Carolina RCV Poll Worker Script

Henderson County, NC RCV Tabulation Guide

Cary, NC Poll Worker Checklist

Educating candidates about the voting and election process can be part of any election, but when implementing ranked choice voting (RCV), it is critical to provide educational tools and resources to this audience.

It is key that candidates understand how RCV works both for their campaign and for the interactions they have with voters.

Here are some candidate education materials that may be useful for conducting an RCV election. Additional materials are being compiled and will be added to the Resource Center soon. 

Examples to Reference

RCV Candidate Guidance (NYC Campaign Finance Board, 2021)

Tips for Candidates in RCV Elections (FairVote California)

RCV Tools Fact Sheet

RCV Tabulation Tools Notes

Outreach to voters and candidates helps make sure everyone understands how ranked choice voting (RCV) works when election time comes. Our team of election administrators is working to build out this particular resource, and it will be added to the Resource Center soon. In the meantime, below are examples of what election administrators did in Hendersonville, North Carolina, and Almeda County, California. 

Examples to Reference

Hendersonville, NC RCV Demonstration Flyer

Hendersonville, NC RCV Demo Poster

Alameda County, CA RCV Powerpoint

RCV Tools Fact Sheet

RCV Tabulation Tools Notes