Check Your Facts: Helping Lancaster County Build Trust in the Election Process

Imagine: It’s February of 2024. You work for the Lancaster County Election Commission, an independent government entity in charge of maintaining safe, secure, honest elections. Every day, you’re getting phone calls that express deep distrust for you, the integrity of your work, and by extension, the integrity of elections in Lancaster County. You know, because you’re the one on the ground, that our elections are among the safest in the world, and that all of the conspiracy theories swirling around the internet have been readily disproved by a wide range of independent journalistic sources. How can you earn the public’s trust and help them feel secure in casting their votes?

If it sounds like a daunting task, it’s because it absolutely was. Combating misinformation can at times feel frustrating, isolating, and fruitless. It takes courage of conviction, absolute confidence in the accuracy of one’s facts, and ready access to verifiable sources. Luckily for the Election Commission, they also had an ace up their sleeve—and her name was Eleanor.

The “Check Your Facts” campaign was born out of two calls to action. Firstly, to ask the public to question if the rumors on the internet had any merit. Secondly, once they’d learned that the election process could be trusted, to exercise their right to vote and participate in local democracy. From the beginning of our creative process for this project, action was always the objective, and it was critical that all the language surrounding this campaign feel smart, snappy, and to-the-point.

To help diffuse some of the tension surrounding election-adjacent content, we crafted ad copy that would introduce a bit of humor into the social media landscape. The campaign visuals reached voters on Meta platforms emblazoned with phrases like “You CAN handle the truth!” and “Secure Elections. I love that for us.” and “Life’s not fair. But our elections are.” Set in a color palette and visual style that echoed classic carbon copy, triplicate paper (white, yellow, and pink) and a textural treatment that echoed photocopier detritus, the campaign read as cheeky, clever, energetic, and above all, nonpartisan.

Engagement from these ads directed users to an online database—check-facts.com—a bold yet approachable digital space that delivered election facts in a way that resonated with voters. Key features included:

• Misconceptions Page – A myth-busting section with shareable graphics to combat misinformation
• FAQs Section – Straightforward, cited answers to the most common voter questions
• Election Deadlines & Resources – Front-and-center voter guides for quick access to official information
• Direct Contact Support – A dedicated page with a direct phone number for voters to ask questions and receive real-time answers

Our approach balanced vibrant design with no-nonsense messaging, making it easy to navigate, easy to trust, and easy to share. This strategic approach delivered the facts—at scale. User engagement and traffic was reported at 10,000 active users in three months (4% of the voter population), 50,000+ interactions (5 engagements per user), and 18,000+ page views.

Client and creative team alike called this campaign a rousing success. Voters engaged critically and confidently with election information, and the site remains a trusted source for accurate voting facts that can be easily edited and managed as time goes on.

The client said, “We cannot believe how well received this campaign and microsite were! We were expecting tons of backlash, but it was mostly all positive.”

For all of us at Eleanor, the “Check Your Facts” campaign was a lesson in the power that objective truth and compelling creative can have. We’re so proud to have worked with the Lancaster County Election Commission on this project, and we look forward to seeing how our industry can affect change in the years to come.