Smartphone Voter Tool

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Submitted by:

David Orr

Courtney Greve

Cook County Clerk

Senior Public Information Officer

312.603.0996

312.603.0931

69 W. Washington, Fifth Floor

Chicago, IL 60602

[email protected]

cookcountyclerk.com

29 th

Annual

National Conference

Savannah, GA

2013 Professional Practices Program

Smartphone Voter Tool

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Smartphone Voter Tool Cook County, Illinois – 2013 ABSTRACT

In October 2012, Cook County Clerk David Orr launched a new Smartphone Voter Tool giving voters the ability to easily search for their personalized voting information from the convenience of a mobile phone or tablet. The Smartphone Voter Tool (SVT) enables voters to view their registration status, see their sample ballot, find their polling place and get Google map directions from their home to their polling place. This information has long been available on the Clerk’s website, cookcountyclerk.com. However, the voter search tool could not be used with ease from a phone or tablet. Found at

m.cookcountyclerk.com, SVT is a mobile-friendly website that does not require downloading an app.

PROBLEM/NEED FOR THE PROGRAM

The number of people who search for information using their smartphone or tablet is growing rapidly. About 56 percent of American adults are smartphone owners as of May 2013, an increase of 21 percentage points in two years, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Pew reports a third of Americans own a tablet, devices that also require mobile formatting.

At cookcountyclerk.com, 21 percent of visitors are users on a mobile device, according to Google Analytics. That is nearly 500,000 visitors a year (see Attachment A).

Leading up to an election, the vast majority of people who visit our website or call our office ask these questions:

 Am I registered?

 Where is my polling place?

 Who is on my ballot?

All of those questions can be answered with the Voter Information Tool found at

http://www.cookcountyclerk.com/elections/voterprofile. However, the tool was not available in a mobile-friendly format. Users on a mobile device had to zoom in and scroll around the pages, which often resulted in abandoning the search altogether or calling our office in frustration.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

A mobile version of the Voter Information Tool was created at m.cookcountyclerk.com to support the mobile user base. All functionality was replicated for the mobile version. Users can search by their last name and address or by birthday and driver’s license/state identification number (see Attachment B). All voters with the same last name at an address will be returned in the search results.

When results are returned, the user can see if they are registered to vote and then click on three links displaying more information. The “Polling Location” tab gives users the name and address of their polling place, as well as a Google map with directions from their home to the polling place. The “Sample Ballot Candidates” and “Sample Ballot Referenda” tabs provide a complete ballot specific to the voter. If a candidate provided a statement to the Clerk’s office, the candidate’s name is a blue hyperlink that takes the voter to the statement.

SVT is available in Cook County’s federally-mandated languages: Spanish, Chinese and Hindi. The mobile site gives a quick link to “View Full Version” for users who want to use the full website.

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Smartphone Voter Tool Cook County, Illinois – 2013

SVT detects and redirects users on mobile devices to the mobile site. Voters can also access the tool by scanning the QR code featured on the Clerk’s promotional materials.

The Clerk’s office worked with its website developer, Catalyst Consulting Group, Inc., to create SVT for a cost of $20,000.

SVT was promoted in press releases, newsletters, and in media interviews. It was also promoted and shared via Facebook and Twitter (see Attachment C).

RESULTS/SUCCESS OF PROGRAM

In the two weeks before the November 6, 2012 Presidential Election, 18,847 users searched for their personal voter information on the Smartphone Voter Tool. Fifteen percent of those visitors returned to the SVT more than once (see Attachment D).

SVT also proved very popular during Early Voting and spread virally through the crowd. Voters in line were instructed to check their registration status using SVT to make sure they were properly

registered, rather than waiting in vain. Early voters also used SVT to view their sample ballot. Get-out-the-vote campaigns also appreciated SVT. The tool allowed deputy registrars to check a voter’s registration status, which sometimes prevented a duplicate application from being submitted. It also helped deputy registrars answer voters’ questions, such as, “Where is my polling place?”

Finally, SVT resulted in fewer calls from voters on Election Day who needed information about their polling place.

Clerk David Orr’s Smartphone Voter Tool is providing Cook County voters with fast, convenient, useful information to help them participate in our democracy. In the future, we plan to continue promoting SVT while working toward converting the entire website to a mobile-friendly format.

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ATTACHMENT A

Mobile Device Website Visitors

6-month Summary

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ATTACHMENT B

S

martphone Voter Tool Screen Shots

Smartphone Voter Tool Cook County, Illinois - 2013

Search Page

Voter Information

Available in four languages Click here to switch

to full website

Search by address or by birthday

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ATTACHMENT B

S

martphone Voter Tool Screen Shots

Polling Place

Sample Ballot

Sample Referenda

Name and address of polling place Google map of polling place Links to candidate statements Full text of sample referenda

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ATTACHMENT C

Smartphone Voter Tool Promotion

Voters in Suburban Cook County can now get their voter registration status, polling place and even a sample ballot through their smartphone, according to a

statement from Cook County Clerk David Orr.

The new tool does not require users to download an app.

Smartphone users can simply visit www.CookCountyClerk.com and the tool will automatically pop up.

“Since more Americans are using their smartphones to make life easier, I wanted to make sure finding voting information was just as convenient,” Orr said.

Voters can also access the tool by scanning the QR code featured on Cook County Clerk promotional materials, such as posters and business cards.

The new tool is available in English, Spanish, Hindi and Chinese.

Voters must register by Oct. 9 to vote in the upcoming presidential election.

Cook County voters get smartphone tool

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ATTACHMENT D

Smartphone Voter Tool Users

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