This story was featured in our ELECTricity newsletter in April 2015. Sign up to receive more success stories from election offices across the country. And how is your election office using technology to run excellent elections? Tell us about it by emailing [email protected] — we’d love to share your story!

Contra Costa County is in the northern part of the East Bay of California, near San Francisco. The Contra Costa County Elections Division serves over 524,000 voters and has 32 full-time employees. Its name in Spanish means “opposite coast”. Its county seat, Martinez, is the birthplace of the martini. (There is some dispute about this fact, but not among the locals.)

County Clerk-Registrar-Recorder Joe Canciamilla took office in April 2013. He wanted to create an outreach program that increased access to information, engaged the community, and encouraged young people to see the value and excitement in civic life. The weekend before election staff Lori Haywood and Paul Burgarino started to work on the Civic Engagement and Education Program in August 2014, an earthquake happened. Over time, they have realized that it’s the daily, tiny movements under the surface that can create a seismic impact on civic participation.

Being social

One of their first goals was to create a strong social media presence. They created a new Facebook page, Engage Contra Costa, along with Twitter and Instagram accounts. Facebook has been their most successful social media platform. They have 694 fans with an initial goal of reaching 1000 fans. They engage their community on Facebook by:

• Posting original memes, or fun graphics, that include important civic information.
• Sharing instructional videos about the voting process.
• Posting pictures that highlight new programs such as ballot drop-off boxes at city halls.
• Distributing content from national organizations like Rock the Vote.

“We see social media as a way to highlight events and new programs in the community, and we really think outside the box in how we present information,” Burgarino said. “When there’s something like the color of the dress picture that floods social media, we think about how we might take that opportunity to get people civically involved.”

Quick tip: Is your election office interested in setting up a Facebook Page to engage your community? If this is your first social media account, we recommend that you also create a social media policy to help ensure that your social media accounts are professionally maintained and long-lasting. Check out the Portage County Board of Elections social media policy, as an example.

The Contra Costa election staff is using technology to increase civic engagement by creating instructional videos. For example, the County administered two elections simultaneously this year. Some voters within a district received two separate ballots in the mail. Election staff asked voters to return mail ballots according to a color-matching system, and they created a short video and shared it on Facebook. The video, in less than one minute, helps Contra Costa voters understand the special color-matching process.

Quick tip: Images tell stories, capture people’s attention, and fuel engagement. By sharing a picture on Facebook, rather than just text, your post might appear higher in someone’s Facebook feed. However, this may be changing. Videos are becoming increasingly popular on Facebook. If your office is active on Facebook, consider integrating more videos into your posts to expand the reach of your civic content.

For more information about the Contra Costa Civic Engagement and Education Program, contact Paul Burgarino at (925) 335-7800 or via email at [email protected].

How are you using technology to improve elections in your jurisdiction? Let us know about it by emailing us at [email protected]. We want to feature your work!