For the 2014 general election, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office wanted to expand the reach of its election data so more voters could easily access the information they needed to cast their ballots. It turned to Pew’s Voting Information Project (VIP), making the county’s official information available through VIP’s free tools and apps, including the customizable Voting Information Tool (VIT) and the texting or short messaging service tool, which provide voters easy access to election information online and through mobile devices.
“The way people live their lives today has changed. Their devices are a central part of how they live their lives and people use media in a much different way than they used to. We need to engage voters where they are, increasingly that’s online and on mobile devices,” said Dean C. Logan, LA county’s Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.
The county also launched a large-scale media campaign, directing voters to the Voting Information Project’s tools through local radio, news broadcasts, newspapers, blogs, and social media. In the days leading up to the election, the county’s website, which featured a customized version of the voting tools, received more than a million visitors with roughly one-third of the traffic from mobile devices.
“This partnership is an excellent example of collaborating with strong messengers to engage a diverse electorate through new, more relevant tactics. The tools made available by the VIP are making these new strategies possible,” Logan stated.
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