Modernizing Vote.gov
Introduction
Established in 2016, Vote.gov provides trustworthy voting information to the American public. The Vote.gov team is committed to empowering the public with accurate, up-to-date, and actionable voting information. In addition to partnering with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), Vote.gov collaborates openly with nonpartisan, third-party organizations, as well as election offices.
What We’re Doing
Vote.gov aims to create impactful changes that will modernize and improve the user experience of the website. The teamʼs priorities include:
- Continuing to expand language selection.
- Providing a single national source of voting information to help combat misinformation while directing voters to their state and local election offices for more state-specific questions.
- Building strategic partnerships to foster trust in voter information and further dismantle misinformation.
- Improving usability and accessibility to state and local-hosted voter registration opportunities.
Where We’re Going
Vote.gov envisions an enhanced website that will provide active links to state and local election websites for details on voting and voter registration. We also plan to provide more complete content that will further solidify Vote.gov as a nationally acceptable authoritative source of general voting information and further facilitate a reliable registration process for voters nationwide.
As Vote.gov begins this modernization effort, the team will leverage key partnerships both with government and industry stakeholders, including non-profit organizations. The following statements describe the desired future state and experience that voters and partners will have with Vote.gov.
Overview of Federal Requirements
In March 2021, President Joe Biden released the Executive Order, Promoting Access to Voting which tasked GSA and Vote.gov with modernizing and upgrading the websiteʼs user experience in order to promote access to voting, with an emphasis on underserved communities. Below is an overview of the Executive Orderʼs requirements relevant to Vote.gov and the respective actions the team is taking to meet each requirement.
Progress to Date
- Vote.gov currently adheres to Section 504 and 508 requirements. All future website updates will prioritize compliance as well.
Planned Activities
- The team is researching opportunities to improve the usability and accessibility of the National Voter Registration Form (NVRF), which was developed by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC).
Progress to Date
- Vote.gov is leveraging the Department of Defense's National Language Service Corps program and other translation resources to increase language offerings. In addition to Spanish, Vote.gov released nine new languages, including Tagalog, Hindi, Bengali, Khmer, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), and Yup'ik. Additional languages will continue to be added to increase access.
Planned Activities
- The team is working towards translating Vote.gov into the languages covered under section 203 in an iterative approach and continues to explore languages outside of those covered under Section 203 that might be feasible to include in an iterative approach.
Progress to Date
- Integrated search.gov to improve the search capabilities for users.
Planned Activities
- Increase search capabilities to all languages offered on vote.gov.