Case study

Empowering multilingual communities with Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta

  • The context

    Georgia's Asian and Pacific Islander population has almost doubled, with the largest Asian community in Gwinnett County (~11% of the total population). Many people can vote but often encounter barriers finding their ballots or how to vote.

    Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta (Advancing Justice-Atlanta), a nonpartisan legal advocacy organization dedicated to supporting these communities, aims to help these people navigate these obstacles while voting.

  • The problem

    "One of the biggest questions we receive at the door or just talking to voters is, who are the candidates? Who should I vote for?”, says Berenice Rodriguez, Civic Engagement & Organizing Director at Advancing Justice-Atlanta.

    Particularly for Asian communities, in-language information about candidates and elections is hard to find. Advancing Justice-Atlanta would host candidate forums with translators. These were beneficial to those who attended, but there was still a gap in upcoming ballot knowledge, especially in languages other than English.

  • The objective

    “We needed a better and more accessible way to relay voter information,” says Berenice Rodriguez.

    “When we saw the chance to partner with Branch's Ballot Builder, we saw it as an opportunity we couldn't miss. Ballot Builder is easy to use, provides reliable candidate research, and supports multiple languages, which frees up our team's time to reach the community in other ways.”

How does Ballot Builder help?

Ballot Builder helps Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta improve the quality and accessibility of their voter education content. In 2023, Ballot Builder helped Advancing Justice-Atlanta to engage hundreds of voters in critical local elections, while simultaneously reducing capacity constraints at the nonprofit.

Now on their third election with Branch, Advancing Justice-Atlanta found the initial onboarding process very smooth. They’ve worked with the Branch team to discuss analytics and audiences has helped establish potential metrics. “Those things have been beneficial to us so we can present that to our funders too, and tell them about the tool and how it helps us engage better with our communities in eight different languages,” says Anthony García Pacheco, Advancing Justice-Atlanta Community Organizing Manager.

“Even compared to the State website, Ballot Builder emerged as a reliable resource for us in informing individuals about their ballot contents. The state provides information, but the user experience falls short in comparison.”

Berenice Rodriguez, Civic Engagement & Organizing Director at Advancing Justice-Atlanta

A better way to connect with multilingual voters

"One of the biggest questions we receive at the door or just talking to voters is, who are the candidates? Who should I vote for? But as a non-partisan organization, we're not allowed to disclose our personal opinions,” says Rodriguez. Advancing Justice-Atlanta would suggest they visit the Secretary of State's website or stay informed through their local news channels, but navigating it can be difficult. “But that's as much as we could do. But it always felt like that just wasn't enough," she says.

"Ballot Builder gave us something concrete to present to these potential voters," she says.

What’s more is that Advancing Justice-Atlanta leveraged Ballot Builder to provide multilingual access to ballot information, benefiting communities such as AANHPI and AMEMSA. Advancing Justice-Atlanta used Ballot Builder to translate the ballot information to eight languages, including English, Spanish, and Chinese.

“We trust the Branch platform because they have a community vetting process for their translations. Branch breaks down the language to make it easier for people to understand, which is a cool feature.
They are intentional about the language and even source local community members to help with translations, making it more credible.”
— Anthony García Pacheco, Advancing Justice-Atlanta Community Organizing Manager

Easily access professionally translated information about your ballot!

How Advancing Justice-Atlanta integrated Ballot Builder into their outreach

To take full advantage of Branch's features, Advancing Justice-Atlanta has developed an internal training program that includes video, in-person training, and peer-to-peer practice. The training was delivered through video and in-person sessions, and technical support and training were provided to ensure everyone knew how to use the tool - volunteers and voters!

“We conduct ongoing training sessions and reminders to keep the team up-to-date. During these training sessions, I dedicate a slide to Branch and demonstrate how to use it and walk them through the ballot. Because I tell them, ‘If you haven't done this yourself and you're telling people to do it, that's a problem,” says Rodriguez.

Advancing Justice-Atlanta’s communications department created and shared a video that explains how to use Ballot Builder with voters. "We did not just want to release the tool and expect people to know how to use it, so we made sure to create awareness about it," says Rodriguez. 

Advancing Justice-Atlanta also instructs canvassers to use Branch to find the correct households to go door-to-door.

"We found it very helpful because city lines can be confusing, and my canvassers don't know every city like the back of their hand," says Rodriguez. "We would encounter locations that could potentially be outside of the city limits. Although we were about 90% sure, we encouraged our canvassers to direct voters to our Branch website's QR code. By entering their address, voters could quickly find out if they had a ballot and if there was an election taking place in their area."

Ballot Builder provides an easy-to-use interface for people of all backgrounds to learn about their local government and candidates, enabling informed voters to build a better future. Book a demo today.