Elevating the CalMatters’ 2024 Voter Guide: translating, printing, localizing, recording and more

Our team is dedicating every ounce of energy to bring the 2024 CalMatters Voter Guide to more Californians than ever before.

Be it first-time voters, Californians who speak Chinese or Korean as their native language, or radio listeners, we’re striving to be a nonpartisan guide for people across the state.

“We’re not telling you how to vote, or even whether to vote at all. We are trying to help as many Californians as possible to make an informed choice between candidates and on ballot measures,” said CalMatters Politics Editor Foon Rhee. He has been leading the powerful journalism behind our Voter Guides since he joined CalMatters in 2021, and he has covered every election – local, statewide or presidential – since 1984.

The setup: Reporters, editors, designers and engineers pushed through the heat of summer to bring you our trusted, nonpartisan guide asap.

We began publishing voter resources in July and the whole guide was up by Labor Day.

Since then: Our team has been adapting the guide to reach (and literally engage) as many California voters as possible. Below, we’re offering a look at that work.

And please: Take a moment today to share our guide. Readers have told us that because it’s nonpartisan, they’ve shared it with family, friends, neighbors, congregations and classrooms.

You can share our guide in English, Spanish, Chinese or Korean, and you can also print out a PDF for people who prefer a physical guide. 

“We’re not only trying to put the voter guide in front of every Californian. We’re also trying to make sure it’s in a language they’re most comfortable speaking, in a format that feels really natural to them, and that the information is shared in a way that makes the most sense to them,” said CalMatters and The Markup Chief Impact Officer Sisi Wei.

In-print, in-person, in a quiz and now in a filter

CalMatters partnerships manager Dan Hu has been driving across the state for weeks to bring our nonpartisan guide, printed props quizzes and Props-in-a-Minute videos to California voters this fall.

“People want to connect over these really serious issues facing our state – with wine,” said Anna Almendrala, CalMatters audience engagement manager. “Dan’s events are a great opportunity for all of us to go outside and touch grass instead of getting our biases confirmed on social media.”

• Filter me informed: You don’t have to limit the time you spend on TikTok in order to stay informed and prepare to vote. Just use our fun new filters – try out each one to “vote” with head tilts based on quick questions and the filter will reveal your possible stance on each prop. Plus, it’s the best way to be an influencer – let’s make informed voting the new meme.
• Also on the tok: What do you get when you take our loved Props-in-a-Minute videos and add our amazing intern, Jenna Peterson? You get some fun, prop-breakdown vertical videos for TikTok and Reels.
• Props in print: Our printable PDFs make it fun (well, at least way more fun than reading the sometimes 300-page voter information guide) to learn about each proposition up for your vote.
• We made a zine: Speaking of fun, designer Gabe Hongsdusit turned our guide into a colorful zine. The issues are being mailed out soon (and distributed to little free libraries).

Localizing your ballot guide

Wouldn’t it be nice to just find all the information on what’s up for your vote this fall in one location? Yeah, we thought so too. And that’s why our data team worked extra on a new feature called “See what’s on your local ballot.”

We saw an opportunity to build a sample local ballot for readers when Voter’s Edge, a collaboration between MapLight and the League of Women Voters, was discontinued. We directly collected data from all 58 counties, then cleaned and shaped it into something useful to readers.

“It was a huge undertaking, and it’s a great first step toward making a comprehensive sample ballot,” said John Osborn D’Agostino, CalMatters Data and interactives editor.

• Address-based lookup: Simply type in your address and the tool will show the state and local races and measures on your ballot. Plus, the lookup tool can be embedded on partner sites in multiple languages.
• Extensive coverage: The tool includes 718 local measures and nearly 975 races, featuring nearly 2,500 candidates from local communities.
• Focused info: The tool includes city, county and supervisorial races but does not include regional, school and special district races such as Board of Education races or school bonds.

On the air, on TV and in libraries

Sometimes we just need a break from the internet. We’ve been working with partners across the state to inform viewers, listeners and library patrons.

“I’m proud that our audio department can help public radio listeners all over the state better understand their ballots. It also means a lot to me that we can offer smaller stations with less resources statewide election coverage they can depend on to bridge coverage gaps while they focus on issues in their own regions,” said Mary Franklin-Harvin, CalMatters audio editor.

“It’s been great to be able to bring CalMatters stories to television and reach an even bigger audience. Video on these platforms goes a long way and helps us explain policy and share the voices of those who are impacted by it,” said Robert Meeks, CalMatters director of video strategy.

• On the radio: We made audio versions of our Props-in-a-Minute videos to share with our public radio partners across the state. We have explainers on every statewide ballot proposition airing on stations from the Imperial Valley all the way up to the Oregon border. To ensure radio quality audio, we took our professional recording gear to our reporters — sometimes taping in reporters’ closets while we crossed our fingers that curious pets would stay quiet. Other times, using a blanket we borrowed from our colleague’s desk for makeshift insulation when we recorded in the office.
• On TV: We partnered with PBS SoCal to bring our proposition guides to Angelenos every day at 5:58 p.m. on TV and in the PBS SoCal app.
• In libraries: Our partnership (and sponsorship by) the California State Libraries means colorful posters in libraries across the state feature our online Voter Guide via QR code.

A guide for more Californians

We’ve worked harder than ever this election to think about how to make our Voter Guide work for more people. Our first step? To fully acknowledge the diversity of California voters. The second step? To think about how we can make our guide meet the needs of the largest swath of people in the state.

“Californians don’t all speak, read or think in the same ways and effective voting information has to meet people where they are. That’s why we’re offering our full Voter Guide in more languages and writing styles than ever before. If English isn’t your first language or you prefer election material that uses simple wording with more explanations, we have options that can fit your needs,” said Ramsey Isler, director of special projects at CalMatters and The Markup.

Simplified language guides:

• Using plain text: We’ve taken our oft-noted easy-to-understand guide and made it even easier. Our Simplified Language Voter Guides in English and Spanish offer a plain-text way to learn about what’s on the ballot free of jargon and even including a glossary for key election terms.
• Quick and complete: We’re offering a Complete Guide that comes in at 80 pages (which is a lot, but thorough) and a Quick Guide option (drilled down to 25-must-read, scannable pages).
• Use: Teachers and community organization leaders shared that our guide was useful in helping share nonpartisan election information. These guides are intended to make that even easier. We hope that you’ll consider sharing these with your community today. We also offer a Teacher’s Guide for educators. Download them here.

Translations and online accessibility:

• Beyond English: We offered our Voter Guide in Spanish for the first time in 2022. Now we’re also offering our guide in Chinese and Korean. Please let us know if you would like to help share or use these guides with an email.
• Accessibility: Our online guide and PDFs inspired by the guide are all made to be accessible to people with various abilities.