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John Adams: How did the Election Guide come about?
Eric Dietrich: It started out as a simple online resource for readers to see who had filed for office in the runup to the 2020 primaries, but it evolved into an interactive framework for tracking candidates throughout the election cycle, both in the primary and general elections. We added campaign finance data, candidate biographical information and a questionnaire that put candidates on the record about key issues — all in an interactive, online format.
JA: What was the most challenging part of developing it?
ED: Definitely collecting the campaign finance data! Candidates running for state versus federal offices actually file campaign finance reports with different agencies. And even though those reports are public information, neither of those agencies have campaign finance databases that are exactly user friendly, so it takes some expertise to take that data and make it useful to voters. We wanted to eliminate any technical barriers people had to getting access to that information.
JA: Why do you think this voting guide, in this format, resonated with readers?
ED: Our guide really capitalized on an advantage we have as an all-digital news outlet, by letting us optimize the guide for the way people find and read information on the web, instead of also having to make sure it would work exported to newsprint. For readers who received their ballot in the mail, a simple internet search would turn up the nonpartisan MTFP guide, and they could drill down to as much detail as they felt like they needed to make an informed decision. The same amount of information in print would amount to a textbook, which would have been pretty daunting to folks. We thought an interactive digital guide designed to display all that elegantly would be a more useful resource.
JA: Do you have anything similar planned for the legislative session?
ED: Yes, we’re in the early stages of building a similar online guide that will help readers track how different bills are moving through the legislative process and follow what their representatives are doing at the capitol. There’s a lot that that goes on in that building, and we’re hoping that effective digital design can make it much easier for readers to understand the ins and outs of the legislative process, particularly in a session where COVID-19 is going to make it more difficult for the public to participate in person.
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