Defining Major Candidates
The criteria for determining "major candidates" is set by the Elections Director and National Director. This criteria is intended to cull out a digestible amount of viable candidates (likely to appear on the ballot, likely to be a strong contender in the election) and those of interest to the general public. The following criteria should be used for determining major candidates, but modifications to the criteria and exceptions to the rules will be considered. Typically, a candidate should meet at least one of these standards in order to be included.
In the future, announced candidates may be given more weight than Potential candidates, and ballot status may be taken into consideration. Current Vice Presidents may also be included by default as potential Presidential candidates.
Designation of a candidate with 'Major' status can be done through admin, in a candidate's election tab. Select the correct election name, and check the Major Candidate tick box. This will give a 't' designation in the major 't/f' boolean column of the election_candidate table. This determination should only be altered by the Elections Monitoring Associate or Elections Director.
Major Candidate Criteria for Presidential Election 2024:
Any candidate included as a major candidate must be an announced candidate, based on our criteria defined on Presidential Coverage.
Designation of Major Candidate Status will occur if any of the following conditions are met:
1) Incumbent President eligible for re-election.
2) Candidates polling at or above 2% in National Polls from 3 or more different Polling Organizations.
3) Party Nominated Third Party Candidates.
4) Candidates who have qualified for upcoming official party debates.
Removal of Major Candidate Status will occur if any of the following conditions are met:
1) Candidates who have officially withdrawn their candidacy - announced through a campaign press release or campaign social media post.
2) Candidates who have died.
3) Candidates who do not receive party nomination, or lose the general election.
For polling information, you could use sources like realclearpolitics.com or fivethirtyeight, both of which display polling data from various polling organizations in one place. We will use the most recent polling data released by each polling organization to determine the inclusion or removal of Major Candidate status.
Candidates can be added or removed from this determination on a rolling basis, and review of candidates should be done by the Elections Monitoring research staff on a monthly basis.
Presidential inclusion standards in 2016:
Primary:
1) All announced Democratic candidates
2) All announced candidates from prominent Third Parties (ie. Green, Libertarian)
3) Top polling announced Republican candidates (include as many as possible)
General:
1) Inclusion in national polls
2) Nominee of Major Party or Nominee of Prominent Minor Party (Libertarian, Green, etc.)
Presidential inclusion standards in 2012 are listed here:
1) If the candidate has raised a significant amount of money
2) If the candidate is expected to win at least 1% of the vote (according to polls)
3) If the candidate has received significant national media attention as a viable candidate
4) If the candidate has won a 3rd party primary of a party with a significant number of registered voters
Parties up for Presidential inclusion in 2012:
1)Democratic
2)Republican
3)Libertarian
4)Constitution Party and the American Independent Party of California
5)Green
6)Reform Party
7)Americans Elect
