2026 Illinois Primary Election Suite

This spring I created the 2026 Illinois Primary Election Suite for Chicago Public Media — a complete redesign of our ballot builder and the first cycle where I also led art direction for the full coverage.

The ballot builder is a wizard-style tool that walks Illinois voters through their specific ballot, race by race, with the journalism our reporters had already written built directly into the experience. The premise: most voters don't struggle because they're disengaged. They struggle because information that already exists never reaches them at the moment they actually need it. The tool addresses that directly — address-based ballot personalization, race previews and candidate questionnaires embedded at decision points, and a save/print flow so you can walk into the polls with your choices already made.

The numbers:

— Average engaged time jumped from 2:46 to 3:54 minutes (a 41% increase), adding over a minute to an already strong-performing product
— Page views grew 5x compared to previous primary cycle in a non-presidential primary year

Beyond the ballot builder: I also led art direction for the full primary coverage cycle, creating original illustrations with graphics producer Mendy Kong that ran across our digital and print coverage. The ballot builder and the editorial visual identity weren't separate workstreams. They were one coherent process, and owning both shaped how they landed.

This was also the first election I voted in as a new U.S. citizen. It made every design decision feel a little more concrete.

I believe civic tech done well isn't a supplement to journalism — it's part of how journalism fulfills its function. Our politics staff creates exceptional work every election cycle. This tool was about making sure that work reaches people at the moment they need it, not after the fact.