Organize a Project Expo / Voting Event

At voting events, community members are recruited by canvassers, can learn about proposals from budget delegates, and can register and vote. The voting event is a combination of a popup canvassing session, project expo, and election. 

This guide describes how to run a complete in-person voting event including partnering with other events, logistics, project expo, registration & voting.  It assumes that the voting event occurs at a parks and recreation event such as a block party where there will be many people nearby who may be hearing about participatory budgeting for the first time. 

This process can also be modified to organize simpler events like pop-up voting. 

Objectives

• 100-200 people vote

Time

• 4-5 hour to prep

• 1 hour - setup  

• 2-8 hours – run the voting event 

• 1 hour - wrap up 

Staffing

• 7-28 Budget delegates to explain their proposals 

• 3-4 election staff and volunteers 

  • poll manager - oversee process and solve problems

  • sign in — give ballots or online registration instructions

  • data manager — transfer data from registration form to online voting software and send links

  • outreach volunteer — pass out “I voted stickers” and collect email of other people to vote.

• 2-4 canvassers 

If you do not have experienced event organizers, run a small pilot voting to practice. 

Budget

Make sure you have a sufficient budget for the event. Some of the costs for the event include: 

Voting

• Room reservation (free to reserve city facilities) 

• Interpretation ($150 for 2 hours) 

• Pens

• Printing for registrations and ballots

• Laptop for online registration 

• (optional) laptops or tablets for online voting

• Ballot box

• Stickers or pins, e.g., PB or “I voted” 

• Equipment backpack(s) 

Project expo

• Poster printing 

• Easels (~$250 for 6-8) for each budget delegate posters 

• (optional) food, enough for budget delegates or voters

• T-shirts for volunteers (~$150 for 15 t-shirts) 

• Pens & name tags,

• Budget delegate Poster printing 

Outreach

• Video cameras/iphone for interviewing people 

• yard signs ($180 for 10 signs) 

• PB posters ($100 for 10 posters) 

Services 

• Reserve room - make sure that:

  • There is wi-fi and power for online registration and voting

  • There is enough space for budget delegate posters

• Arrange interpretation 

• Arrange transportation for delegates if appropriate

• Order food 

• Order t-shirts 

• Print yard signs and posters 

Materials 

• Voting

  • Registration forms (see Setup Registration) — enough for each voter + extras (200+): 

  • Ballots (see Setup Ballots) — enough for each voter + extras (200+): 

  • Volunteer RSVP (Resource 1) - send to volunteer list to recruit 

  • Volunteer Reminder (Resource 2) - send 1 week and/or day before to RSVP list 

  • Volunteer Thank you (Resource 3) - send after the event to volunteers 

  • Voting event roles & reminders (Resource 4) — print (pdf) 1 for each volunteer to remind them of their roles at the event. 

  • Online voting instructions (Resource 5) — print 20+, these can be reused 

  • Friend signup instructions (Resource 6) — print out copies for outreach volunteer to ask people to recruit their friends. Can also print out as flyer to give to each voter. 

  • Friend signup form (Resource 7) — print out copies for outreach volunteer to ask people to recruit their friends.  

  • Sample ballot (Resource 8) — use as template for creating ballot 

  • Sample ballot guide (Resource 9) — use as template for creating ballot guide 

  • Pens

  • Ballot box

  • Laptop & extension cords

  • Hotspot if no wifi

  • Tables & chairs

• Project expo

  • Proposal posters

  • Easels for posters

  • (optional) T-shirts for budget delegates

• Outreach

  • Outreach script 

  • Candy, donuts, stickers pins - bring something to pass out. Candy works great for attracting kids who bring their parents. Donuts can also work well. 

  • Boom box