Sample Ballot Customizations

Help your audience make informed decisions by adding custom guidance directly to their TurboVote Sample Ballot. Sample Ballot Customizations give you the tools to provide trusted voting guidance exactly where your audience needs it. 

Discovery

Users accessing their personalized Sample Ballot will see your custom election descriptions, Candidate Badges, candidate and measure highlights, and endorsements alongside the standard ballot information for their specific address and voting location. 

Your custom election descriptions will also be surfaced in the “What’s on Your Ballot” module on the Election Guide, ensuring maximum visibility throughout the user experience. If you have made endorsements or highlights, a flag on the Election Guide invites voters to view these customizations on the Sample Ballot.

User Experience

Election Description

You can add a custom description for any upcoming election, appearing at the top of the Sample Ballot and in the “What’s on Your Ballot” module of the Election Guide. Learn more about other custom content you can add to Election Guides. You can also add links to external content. 

• Set context for why this election matters to your audience
• Mention the most important races and ballot measures
• Include an optional external link to direct users to additional resources or position papers

Sample Ballot with a nonpartisan election description for a New Jersey demo user’s next election.

Race, Candidate, and Ballot Measure Descriptions

Throughout the Sample Ballot, you can add custom descriptions (and optional links) to specific races, candidates, ballot measures, and measure positions.

• Explain what each office does or what a ballot measure would accomplish
• Add biographical information or other relevant content about platforms or track records to candidate pages
• Add context about why certain candidates or ballot measures matter to your mission
• Explain in your own words what voting Yes or No would mean on a ballot measure
• Include an optional external link to direct users to additional resources or position papers

Sample Ballot with nonpartisan race and ballot measure descriptions for a Florida demo user’s next election. 

Race and Ballot Measure Highlights

Emphasize important races and ballot measures with a unique visual treatment on the Sample Ballot—without making a partisan statement or needing to write any copy. 

• Help your audience identify high-priority races or ballot measures they should pay attention to

Sample Ballot with highlighted races for a New York demo user’s next election.

Sample Ballot customized with descriptions and highlights. 

Candidate Badges

Candidate Badges allow you to indicate key information about candidates with specific icons, giving voters more context in an easy-to-scan way. There are seven Candidate Badges to choose from, and you can add up to five of any type to each candidate, listed in any order that you prefer.

When adding Candidate Badges, you must include a short string of custom text alongside each icon (e.g., “Signed the Voting Rights Pledge” when using the Pledge badge). Within Candidate Guides, you may add an optional hyperlink to this string of text.

Sample of Candidate Badges for November 2026 elections. Note that badges appear on the Sample Ballot and within Candidate Guides.

Contact partnerships@democracy.works or your Partner Manager to upload Candidate Badges.

Sample Ballot with example Candidate Badges on our demo site.

Endorsements 

You can also select specific candidates your organization endorses or opposes, and ballot measures you recommend voting for or against. You can use endorsements to express your viewpoints and guide supporter decisions.

• For each ballot measure, you can indicate whether you support a “Yes” or “No” vote. You can use the Yes/No description slots to explain why you support that position.
• For each candidate on the ballot, you can indicate that they are “Endorsed” or “Opposed.” You can also use the candidate description slot to explain why they earned your endorsement, who else they are endorsed by, or any other details about the candidate.
• For races that use ranked choice voting, you can endorse candidates in a preferred rank order.

Ballot Slates: If you add endorsements to TurboVote, you have the option to show only your endorsed candidates and measure positions by default on your users’ Sample Ballots. When enabled, Ballot Slates draw attention to your endorsements while still giving users the option to view more information about each contest or measure. If you haven’t made an endorsement in a particular contest, candidates in that race will be collapsed by default.

Contact partnerships@democracy.works or reach out to your Partner Manager to enable Ballot Slates.

Embedded Sample Ballot with example endorsements on our demo site.

Demo Sample Ballot customized with endorsements. 

Create Customizations

It’s easy for you to add Sample Ballot Customizations using the self-serve process, putting you in control of creating the voting guidance that your audience needs. Our team is ready to support implementation every step of the way.

Note: At this time, you cannot add Candidate Badges through the self-serve process. Contact partnerships@democracy.works or your Partner Manager for assistance with these customizations.

For all other customizations, here’s how it works:

• Log in to your Admin tool and navigate to the new Ballot Customizations tab. From there, you can access your Partner Election Calendar—your personal command center for all ballot customizations. You can also access your Partner Calendar directly at [yourURL].turbovote.org/partner/calendar.

• Use the calendar’s filters to view upcoming elections and find the races, ballot measures, and candidates that you would like to add ballot customizations for.

• Once you navigate to an Election Guide or the Sample Ballot, use the embedded forms to write descriptions (250 character limit), highlight important races and ballot measures, or endorse candidates and ballot measure positions. All ballot customizations are optional, allowing you to add the content that makes sense for your organization and message.

• Submit your customizations form. Sample Ballot customizations are immediately published and accessible to your audience. You can view your published customizations within Admin Mode or see a live voter view. It’s easy to make additional changes on demand. Please note, new submissions overwrite existing ones so be sure to include all final content in each new submission.

For more information, check out this video tutorial: 

To get started, sign in to the Partner Admin tool or reach out to partnerships@democracy.works for support.

Bulk Customizations

If you would like to add Sample Ballot Customizations on a bulk scale (for contests happening across the country), email our partnerships team at partnerships@democracy.works to explore your options and get started.