OpenBallot is a non-partisan platform, incubated by the Plurality Institute, that turns scattered voter guides into a single, transparent interface.

Newspapers, advocacy groups, political clubs, and informed individuals already publish thoughtful recommendations, but they’re fragmented and hard to compare, especially on long, complex ballots with different voting methods (from simple yes/no propositions to multi-candidate and ranked-choice races). OpenBallot aggregates those guides so voters can follow trusted sources, see side-by-side recommendations on every race, and complete their ballot quickly with a values-aligned, well-informed vote.

I worked as the lead UI/UX and product designer, responsible for the core voter and guide-creator experiences. My focus was to distill a very complex information space—multiple races, conflicting guides, different voting methods, and different levels of detail—into an interface that feels intuitive, calm, and fast. I designed and iterated on interaction patterns that let users move smoothly from a full ballot overview down to a single contested race, without losing context.

In collaboration with the founders and engineers, I translated product and user research insights into concrete design decisions, helped shape the product narrative (including proposing the “OpenBallot” name), and maintained a consistent visual and interaction language across the app. This work contributed to a system that has already been used in multiple live elections including San Francisco primaries, recalls, and generals, a New York City primary, and a California special election and is evolving into durable civic infrastructure rather than just another campaign tool.