The right to vote is central to American life. Elections happen year-round, and millions of voters decide everything from presidential races to local levies.

Behind every ballot is a mountain of logistics. Thankfully, regional departments like the Hamilton County Board of Elections (BOE) make the democratic process run smoothly—day in and day out.

The Organization: Hamilton County Board of Elections

• Headquarters: Norwood, OH
• Voter Population: 600,000+
• Leader: Sherry Poland, Director of Elections

Hamilton County’s Board of Elections (BOE) runs federal, state, and local elections for Cincinnati and surrounding communities. As Ohio’s third-largest county—and one of the most politically critical in the U.S.—the BOE employs bipartisan team members to manage a complex mix of public-facing needs and secure backend systems.

The Challenge: Build a website for everyone—from first time voters to political pros

A BOE website must serve everyone: 18-year-olds voting for the first time, seniors who’ve voted since the Truman era, non-native English speakers, and people with all types of accessibility needs.

When Sherry came to us in 2019, the BOE site was outdated and hard to use. She wanted Hamilton County to lead the way in digital voter experience ahead of the 2020 election—timing that would prove more important than anyone expected.

And there was more: the public-facing site was only 30% of the work. The other 70% had to support the heavy data needs of BOE staff, campaign offices, and the Ohio Secretary of State. This wasn’t just a website. It was a digital infrastructure overhaul.

The Strategy: Make it look simple and word hard behind the scenes

To serve all audiences, we focused on clarity and ease of use. Under the hood, we built a platform powerful enough to manage massive datasets, secure infrastructure, and behind-the-scenes processes, serving users in administration and political campaign management.

The Tactics: Build a technology iceberg

1. Plan early, move intentionally: We mapped out a development plan that gave the BOE plenty of runway before the 2020 election.
2. Find inspiration in unlikely places: Airline websites inspired some of our design choices. Like a flight finder, we prioritized the most common tasks so users could act quickly.
3. Design for clarity: We built a clean, accessible, mobile-friendly frontend designed for speed and simplicity. 
4. Modernize the backend: Our technology team worked with the BOE to both modernize their voter databases and optimize the import system for faster, more reliable data updates. 
5. Fortify important data: Handling terabytes of voter and election data requires serious security. Our dev team took extra measures to maintain a smooth and secure technical environment.
6. Adapt to a pandemic: When COVID-19 disrupted in-person training, we created a Learning Management System (LMS) to help the BOE train poll workers remotely and confidently.

The Results: Accessible democracy

Sherry’s goal was to lower the barrier to one of America’s most essential rights. The new site launched on time, supported voters through a global pandemic, and continues to meet the high standards of national elections.

"This was a very complex project. US Digital not only met our (tight) deadline, but exceeded our expectations"
– Sherry Poland, Director of Elections

We are proud to support the BOE’s work, and to play a part in upholding democracy.

Learn more about the BOE