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2.4 Reducing Barriers

Over 200 countries in the world use some form of paper ballots (Schumacher & Connaughton, 2020), and most strive to use ballots that are simple and easy to understand; however, illiteracy, language proficiency, and disability are barriers that can prevent full participation.

Rows of marbles in a box with divots. A person counting them.
“2021 Gambia Presidential Election Observation“, Commonwealth Secretariat, CC BY-NC 2.0.

Vote By Marbles

In The Gambia, where many voters are illiterate, elections are conducted by placing marbles in drums that are painted specific colours to correspond with each political party (IFES, 2023).

 

Literacy & Language Proficiency

A list of parties with logos, initials, and an image of the leader.
Ballot from South Africa’s first post-apartheid election included candidate photos and party logos. “South African 1994 Election Ballot Paper“, Minnekon, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ballots in France are printed in French. Canadian ballots are printed in both official languages, English and French (Government of Canada, 2025). For voters who aren’t fluent in an official language, voting can be difficult. Some jurisdictions offer ballots to voters in multiple languages. For example, in Cook County, Illinois, over 30% of the households speak a language other than English (ShareAmerica, 2020). To accommodate the linguistic diversity, the County makes ballots available in multiple languages, including Spanish, Korean, and Arabic (ShareAmerica, 2020). Many countries throughout Africa and Latin America use colours, party logos, and candidate photos to reduce confusion (Reynolds and Sttenbergen, 2006).

Offering ballots in multiple languages ensures that linguistic minority groups are able to participate in the democratic process.

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Elections: Process & Performance Copyright © 2025 by Matt Farrell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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