Bay Ballot redesigns candidate colors after pink read as Republican and colorblind confusion
SeanOliver · x · 2026-10-22
Bay Ballot, a tool showing 118 Bay Area voter guides side by side, dropped blue/pink candidate colors after a reader reported that pink read as Republican — making Democrats Scott Wiener and Connie Chan look like a D vs R race, when colors only indicated endorsement rank.
Fix details:
- Candidates now use violet, amber, teal, and slate
- Code review caught that teal and slate looked nearly identical to red-green colorblind readers, so slate is now much darker in light mode and much lighter in dark mode
- A test now fails if a candidate color ever turns blue or red