In southern New Mexico, many of the voters Doña Ana County serves speak Spanish, and federal law requires the county to translate most of its election materials. For the Bureau of Elections, meeting that requirement was slow and costly. Professional translators could take anywhere from three days to a few weeks, and the bilingual staff who filled the gaps were translating on top of their regular jobs.
Free online tools didn't solve the problem. Machine translations often read as too formal or simply "off," and the county's Spanish-speaking staff would flag wording that no one in the community would actually use. The office could produce Spanish that was technically correct, but not Spanish that resonated with the people reading it.
That created a hard ceiling on how much the county could translate. Only about half of its election materials — mostly the legally required notices, proclamations, and ballot questions — made it into Spanish. Social media posts, flyers, and videos rarely did.
Why USDR?
Bureau of Elections Supervisor Janice Giron first came across USDR's work through the elections community and submitted an application to our active call for partners to help us launch a pilot language assistance program in elections. Doña Ana County was chosen as the first elections office to adapt an approach USDR had already proven in unemployment insurance: a responsible, plain-language method for using generative AI to translate government content.
The fit went beyond cost. USDR's support for this program is pro bono and conflict-free, and the county wanted a partner who would build capacity inside the team rather than hand over a tool and walk away.
Our approach
Over about 12 weeks, a USDR team worked alongside Doña Ana County staff on two connected tracks: building a validated glossary and standing up an AI translation assistant the team could run on its own.
The work started with listening. USDR reviewed the county's election materials across different formats, interviewed Bureau staff and five bilingual election workers, and researched how neighboring jurisdictions handled the same terminology. Together they identified the terms that caused the most trouble, including early voting, convenience centers, bond questions, and "ballot," where a single English phrase had several competing Spanish translations.
From there, the county built its first bilingual Spanish–English elections glossary, with USDR as a guide. Because a public service announcement and an Instagram post call for different registers, the glossary offers both a formal option and a more conversational one so staff can match the tone to the material. The project also improved the English source content, since clearer, plainer English produces stronger Spanish translations.
I feel like I can trust the program you created. Before, I couldn't really trust Google Translate for Spanish. Now it's so much easier, and I've even picked up some Spanish along the way. — Cynthia Diaz, Communications Coordinator, Doña Ana County Clerk's Office – Bureau of Elections
USDR then helped the team build a custom AI translation assistant tuned to the glossary, along with evaluation rubrics to check quality and documentation for keeping the tool current. The assistant works for the county’s bilingual staff like a translation partner, not a replacement for staff. The tool helps the team get to a first draft faster, offers alternate phrasings, back translates high-stakes language for review, and flags terms without a Spanish equivalent or an entry in the glossary. Training and a handoff session made sure the county could maintain and extend the work long after the engagement ended.
Technologies used: Custom GPT-based AI translation assistant, prompt library, translation evaluation rubrics.
Practices used: User research, content strategy and plain language, prompt engineering, glossary development, product management.
The impact
The clearest change is reach. Before the project, the county translated roughly half of its election materials into Spanish. Now it translates closer to 90 percent, including the social media posts, flyers, and videos the team simply didn't have time to translate before.
The work also changed how quickly the office can move. Instead of waiting days or weeks on outside translators, staff can produce trusted Spanish translations in-house and get time-sensitive voting information out in both languages at once.
Community response has followed. The office has seen a rise in social media followers and more engagement from Spanish speakers, including comments on posts that previously ran only in English. Those signals are hard to measure precisely, but the team reads them as growing trust, the foundation the whole project was built on.
Just as important, the county owns what it built. The glossary, the assistant, and the know-how now live inside the Bureau of Elections, ready for the November election and beyond.
Before this program, maybe half of our material was translated into Spanish. Now it's closer to 90 percent, and I think it's built trust in our community. — Cynthia Diaz, Communications Coordinator, Doña Ana County Clerk's Office – Bureau of Elections
Get started building your own translation assistant
The AI Translation Assistants for Elections toolkit is our step-by-step guide to building bilingual glossaries, setting up an AI translation tool, and evaluating your results. Download the toolkit today to start producing Spanish-language materials that speak directly to voters in your community more quickly and more consistently.
The team
U.S. Digital Response
- Leilani Martínez — Team Lead and Content
- Seema Jethani — AI Product Manager
- Leyda Hughes — User Researcher
- Leslie Arely Martinez — User Researcher
- Steve Lund — Technical Product Manager, USDR staff
- Lynn Constabile — Account Manager, USDR staff
Doña Ana County Clerk's Office – Bureau of Elections
- Janice Giron — Bureau of Elections Supervisor
- Cynthia Diaz — Communications Coordinator
- Noemi Alaniz — Document Technician
- Irene Reza — Document Technician
- Doreen Calzada — Staff Coordinator
- Caroline Zamora — Chief Deputy County Clerk
Thumbnail photo by Compagnons on Unsplash
