Project

Denver Decides Election Web Site
City and County of Denver
Created: 2003

Goal

Combine election-related content from multiple sources into a unified Web site to inform and educate Denver citizens about candidates running for office.

Scope of Work

This site was the online companion to the seven-month-long Denver 8 TV Denver Decides coverage of the 2003 municipal election, a project that combined television and Internet components in a sweeping get-out-the-vote effort.

It was an unprecedented election for the City and County of Denver in that voters chose a new mayor, a new auditor, two election commissioners, and 10 out of 13 new city council members -- essentially, an entirely new governing body of elected officials. A record number of 93 candidates expressed a desire to run for office, and 75 of them were certified for the ballot, along with six ballot initiatives. A hot run-off election for eight seats took place four weeks later.

Using ideas from team brainstorming sessions, I produced paper prototypes outlining the site's information architecture, a visual design mockup, and then constructed the site, bringing the vivid periwinkle and warm brown-red colors of the campaign's logo into the page headers along with civic-oriented quotes from historical political leaders.

The site integrated a number of interactive and educational features to engage voters, including candidate video bios, public forum transcripts, news articles, fun facts, historical essays, election results, and more.

I updated the site daily with copy from numerous sources including the city's television staff, the Denver Election Commission, a transcriber, a Denver author, and the candidates themselves. I also provided original graphics and research-based text, including voter milestones from legislative passages, voting statistics, ballot instructions, and more.

Recognition

The Web site was a first-place National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) award winner. As a primary community resource, it was heavily referenced by local media.

Sample Content

Candidate Bio Page (57K PDF)

It was fun to design and construct the site, but what I enjoyed most about this particular project was managing its content because there were so many different contributors and we faced tight deadlines. Gathering accurate information for 75 different candidate pages was an interesting challenge!

Suffrage in Colorado (155K PDF)

It was fitting that a Web site supporting such a historical election would tie in some of Denver's political past. Dr. Thomas J. Noel, a history professor at the University of Colorado at Denver, drafted a wonderful piece on suffrage and the rise of the city's political structure. I added historical photos and captions to compliment the essay. I didn't want it to be forever lost, so here was the final result.