Ann Arbor City Clerk’s

Satellite Office @ UMMA

Transforming a gallery into a visible hub of student voting

One of our most impactful projects in 2020 was creating a satellite City Clerk’s office in U-M’s campus art museum. Over the course of six weeks, 5,412 voters registered and 8,501 ballots were collected!

We designed every aspect of the experience to be welcoming and reassuring for new college-age voters. Students could ask questions of peer volunteers, read explanatory materials and interact directly with city clerk staff throughout the process. The office, located in the center of campus life, made it possible for students to register, request and receive an absentee ballot, and return their ballot all in one visit.

photo: Eric Bronson / Michigan Photography

Clerks were particularly attentive to the fact that many of the students were first-time voters.

photo: Mark Gjukic

Students could complete the whole voting process — from registering through dropping off their ballot — in one visit.

photo: Mark Gjukic

Students were able to sit down with the clerks and have their questions answered.

photo: Mark Gjukic

photo: Stephanie Rowden

A banner next to the ballot box reminded visitors to sign their ballot envelope before depositing it. (The design was so successful at reducing the number of unsigned envelopes that the City Clerk replicated our set up at City Hall!)

photo: Stephanie Rowden

Register. Request a ballot. VOTE early HERE! was our branding identity for the project. This language, used here in window graphics, both publicized the office and made Michigan’s new streamlined voting process explicit.

photo: Mark Gjukic

The office was a visible presence in the heart of campus.

photo: Stephanie Rowden

Trained student volunteers welcomed visitors and helped them with forms and documents so they would be prepared for their turn with a clerk.

photo: Mark Gjukic

We designed the space so that the experience for voters would be straightforward and unintimidating, including clear language and a comfortable context in which to interact with the clerks.

photo: Eric Bronson / Michigan Photography

We situated the clerk’s office inside an art museum — an unexpected civic space that elevated the experience of voting.

photo: Stephanie Rowden

photo: Eric Bronson / Michigan Photography

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson joined us on National Voter Registration Day to celebrate the opening of the satellite office.

photo: Eric Bronson / Michigan Photography

(We love this shot of Secretary Benson taking a “foot selfie” at the entrance to the office!)

photo: Stephanie Rowden

We weren’t the only ones excited by Secretary Benson’s visit — here, Ann Arbor City Clerk Jackie Beaudry (to the right of Benson) and her staff celebrate the moment.

photo: Stephanie Rowden

We designed t-shirts to celebrate voting — and help students remind their peers to vote!

photo: Mark Gjukic

photo: Eric Bronson / Michigan Photography

The cohort of dedicated City Clerks who staffed the satellite office (pictured here at the end of a very, very long Election Day shift) were patient, enthusiastic, and embraced the opportunity to help new voters.

photo: Stephanie Rowden

Students consistently chose to document and share their participation with a selfie at the ballot drop box.

photo: Hannah Smotrich

photo: Mark Gjukic

Thank you to our partners

The Ann Arbor City Clerk's Office @ UMMA would not have been possible without the vision and efforts of Ann Arbor City Clerk Jacqueline Beaudry and her longtime collaborator Professor Edie Goldenberg (Ford School). Briannon Cierpilowski spearheaded the initiative at UMMA, which welcomed the project with open arms. Michael Rein (U-M Office of the Vice President for Government Relations) facilitated the complicated behind-the-scenes logistics and dedicated UM student volunteers with Turn Up Turnout and the Big Ten Voting Challenge worked long hours to assist their peers and keep democracy rolling! Thanks to University of Michigan's Democracy and Debate Theme Semester for generously supporting this project.