How to decide on the 14 CA ballot measures? Take our quizzes

Fourteen propositions are on the November ballot, and whether you think that’s a few too many, it’s still important for you to know how you’ll vote. We’re here to help with a tool that we hope is as fun as it is informative: Quizzes.

I chatted with Shelly Tan, a graphics reporter and illustrator on the project, about our approach to informing voters.

Why incorporate playful interaction in journalism? 

Often with these complicated topics, it can feel intimidating to a reader because of how dense it is. … So presenting something that’s more playful makes it feel like we’ll learn about this together, instead of, “here’s a 500-page textbook that you have to now dive into and figure it out on your own.”

How did the idea of a balancing scale and statement cards come about?

We defined our audience in this case as probably slightly younger — people who know the value of politics and voting, but might be a little disengaged or not up to date on all the nuances.

We ended up going with something a bit more gamified and took inspiration from deck building card games, where you’re given a series of cards that you use to interact with your environment. It’s a scale and we’re adding point values to it and creating weights to reinforce the idea of weighing your arguments.

What was the hardest proposition to boil down?

Some of these props are pretty tricky because a lot of these are vague things that don’t have a concrete visual to nail to. Like Proposition 5, about recall reform — how do you draw a recall?

With that one we decided, let’s go a little bit funny with it: Who’s someone you associate with recalls? Newsom. Newsom is also very distinct as a portrait, he’s very easy to identify. So we pulled in the Drake meme, where he has a hand up saying no, and then a hand pointing yes. It’s a funny way of playing into the idea of people saying yes or no to the recall, which really is what the prop is about at its core.

Check out Shelly’s work and our quizzes here.

And, today we’re looking at how governor candidates Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton plan to approach healthcare if they win in November. Read more here.