2022 - Winner for Outstanding Innovations in Elections - Large

Every vote matters. Yet every vote cannot always be counted when ballots are torn, marred, improperly marked, or a voter's intent is unknown. With nearly 335,000 absentee ballots mailed to St. Louis County's Board of Elections since June 2020, ballot openers witnessed repeated problems that can cause ballots to be rejected or require time-consuming duplication. Wanting every vote to count, the Board of Elections launched'Love Your Ballot", an educational campaign through social media to address common mistakes made by voters. Taking a humorous approach to a serious subject, the Elections Board produced a series of eight videos featuring employees showing common mistakes, with voiceover scripts explaining how these actions can affect accurately counting the votes cast. The successful campaign ran prior to the primary and mid-term elections in 2022 and was shared on the agency's Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok platforms. The Love Your Ballot campaign, along with other strategies, significantly improved ballot quality in time for the 2022 primary and mid-term elections, with a duplication rate that decreased to 3.5% from 13.7%.