December 20, 2024

In a remote Alaskan village, where election information is often as sparse as winter daylight, a newsroom’s voter guide bridged a critical information gap — offering details about ballot initiatives that had never before reached the community as an easy-to-follow guide. Meanwhile, in the plains of South Dakota, a local newsroom’s alliance with a state association led parts of its voting resources to be published in small weekly newspapers in areas without reliable internet. Reporters who delivered election information postcards to post offices across rural Vermont found the practice time-consuming, but the long trips resulted in engaging conversations with local residents who were excited to meet them. These examples illustrate the transformative potential of localized voter education initiatives — outreach made possible through a unique partnership with the Institute for Nonprofit News’ Rural News Network (RNN).

With funding support from the Microsoft Democracy Forward initiative, RNN facilitated the distribution of voter guides across 31 rural parts of the country to help audiences better understand local, state and federal election candidates and processes; part of a broader effort to increase civic engagement and improve access to trustworthy election information in rural communities.

In reflecting on the work, news leaders shared lessons learned, innovative approaches, and broader industry implications. Key takeaways include the importance of hyper-local content tailored to the unique concerns of rural voters, the power of strategic relationships with community organizations and local media to expand reach, and the necessity of early planning to address logistical challenges like distribution in remote areas and engagement through various digital and offline channels.

The collaboration was designed to address a critical gap: Rural audiences often lack access to comprehensive, locally relevant voter information. By equipping newsrooms with resources and funding, the project aimed to provide actionable, accessible guides that resonate with rural voters.

Newsrooms employed a range of strategies to share voter guides. Some, like BenitoLink in California, relied exclusively on websites, newsletters and social media to reach rural voters, overcoming platform challenges like Facebook’s ad restrictions by focusing on organic growth. Leveraging local newspapers, including small weeklies, was particularly effective for nonprofit newsrooms like South Dakota News Watch.

Others, including Conecta Arizona, collaborated with local organizations, distributed printed guides and engaged in grassroots outreach such as door-to-door canvassing. “We [also] saw huge growth on TikTok with the whole election reporting,” Founder and Director Maritza L. Félix explained, underscoring the value of blending offline and digital channels to engage voters of all ages.

Prioritizing Proximity

Several patterns emerged in audience interactions. Guides on local races significantly outperformed those covering federal elections, as rural voters prioritized issues closer to home. Hyper-local, easily digestible guides resonated more effectively than broader, generic election coverage.

“The local races swamped the federal ones,” said Dwayne Yancey, founding editor of Cardinal News in southern Virginia. Of the 20 most-searched races on Cardinal News’ site, only one was a federal race (Senate). “Our federal races weren’t competitive and people had few other sources of info for the local candidates.”

Stories addressing abortion rights, voter intimidation and district-specific races gained traction, often due to candidate sharing or going viral on platforms like TikTok — a trend exemplified by Conecta Arizona.

Communities expressed appreciation for the accessibility and comprehensiveness of the guides, which often addressed gaps in existing election coverage.

For the Sierra Nevada Ally, Publisher Joe McCarthy reported that its voter guide boosted page views by 20% and doubled time spent on the page, leading to several small-dollar donations that increased the organization’s total monthly donation average by 25%.

Shereen Siewert, editor and publisher of the Wausau Pilot & Review in central Wisconsin, shared similar success. The newsroom’s voter guide, translated into Hmong, Vietnamese and Spanish, not only met its goal of engaging readers but also resulted in unexpected financial contributions. “Receiving financial support from readers was definitely a success,” Siewert said in her survey response.

Honolulu Civil Beat leveraged the grant from RNN, and focused its summer capital campaign on the newsroom’s elections resources and coverage, raising more than $40,000 from 324 donors.

Scaling Success

News leaders’ reflections revealed critical insights for the industry. Preparing well in advance of elections allows for thorough content creation and robust outreach. Investing in staff training, partnerships and tools is essential to meet rural audiences’ unique needs, as Enlace Latino NC saw. It used printed information and WhatsApp Groups to facilitate direct communication with agricultural workers in Spanish and disseminate relevant information.

Building on these innovative approaches, other newsrooms adopted audience-driven plans to engage voters early. For example, Mat-Su Sentinel in Alaska asked its audience in July what they wanted to hear from candidates — sparking voter interest months before the election.

This emphasis on voter engagement extended to Athens County Independent in southeast Ohio, where founder Corinne Colbert described a rigorous approach: “We included candidates’ responses to a survey about local issues, then fact-checked their answers. One of the candidates said it was the first time he’d ever been asked to verify information from a candidate survey and complimented us on our due diligence.”

Not all intended outreach worked as planned. Securing candidate participation was a consistent hurdle, especially in smaller races. Technological limitations prevented some ambitious plans, such as interactive address-based tools. Rural misinformation and intimidation created additional barriers to voter education.

The Texas Tribune staff realized that people are less likely to use QR codes, so they found it more effective to provide printed guides with helpful information, such as key voting deadlines, rather than offering a sticker with a QR code linking to a digital resource.

Refining information meant voters felt heard — one of many successes. First-of-their-kind guides filled information voids in states like Maine and parts of Ohio. South Dakota News Watch credited targeted Google Ads for a marked uptick in engagement with its voter guide. Engaging visual campaigns helped counteract misinformation and foster civic awareness.

In Kentucky, Louisville Public Media (LPM) reached the largest number of people in rural areas through its guide, leveraging digital tools like search engine optimization (SEO). While it ran into issues promoting its statewide guide via social media, it was able to promote its local guide without a problem and successfully leveraged its relationships with affiliate stations with even larger rural audiences than its own.

“All of us working together allows us to get more information to these communities than we would be able to otherwise,” said Gabrielle Jones, LPM’s vice president of content.

Fostering community partnerships, as The Kent Good Times Dispatch along the western edge of Connecticut did with libraries and senior centers, is also key as they found collaborating with trusted local entities expanded not only reach, but credibility.

To replicate and scale these successes, editors emphasize the importance of investing in rural outreach and to customize strategies to the specific needs of rural communities.

Leaders like Carson Walker, CEO of South Dakota News Watch, shared that he plans to conduct community engagement sessions in rural areas in 2025 and will promote it as one of the things NewsMatch — INN’s annual grassroots fundraising campaign to support members — does to inform readers. “My hope is that effort will yield more readers and donors beyond the state’s two urban areas, which sets us up for increased rural engagement in 2026 when we have a gubernatorial race and likely an open U.S. House seat,” Walker wrote.

This collaboration demonstrated the critical role of tailored voter education in empowering rural communities. By sharing these lessons, the project set a precedent for how the broader news industry can engage underserved audiences effectively.