Elections Monitoring Introduction
Election Monitoring Unit (EMU) is responsible for making sure that, at all times, our website reflects who will be on the ballot for each election. This ensures that voters are provided with a full picture of who is running for each office, and what they will ultimately see in the voting booth. Election Monitors track and update all elections, candidates, and election results.
Monitoring elections is the first step in the Elections Department Process. We make the lists that the rest of the department depends on for mailings, candidate contacts, and press reports. The Profiles and Issue Positions researchers rely on EMU's candidate lists to determine who they should conduct research for.
The core duties of EMU are finding and entering candidate lists, and keeping these lists updated through primaries, runoffs, recalls, candidate filing deadlines, withdrawals, deaths, appointments, and any other possible changes candidates may go through. To keep up with these changes, we rely on the election officials for each state. These websites can be incredibly useful, but sometimes questions arise. When in doubt, call or email the election officials. They're nice (generally) and knowledgeable (almost as frequently).
Nearly as vital as maintaining the candidate lists is communication with other members of the department. The Elections Research Director needs to know the status of the lists, as well as what sort of intern/staff/member help EMU needs on a daily basis. The director also has the final say on questions or solutions to problems that may arise.
For any changes involving Congressional/Gubernatorial Candidates, it is important to inform not only the entire Elections Department, but also the National Director and Director of Officials Research.
Any changes that involve State Legislature and other Statewide offices, should be passed on to the entire Elections Department.
Here are some of the pages that will be useful for learning the principles of Elections Monitoring:
- Adding Elections
- Creating Candidate Lists
- Candidate Removals & Withdrawals
- Running Mates
- Voter Registration
- City/Local Election Coverage
- City County
- Ballot Measures
- Reporting
- Calendars and Tracking
- Dailies
- Processing Election Results
- Officials Party Changes and Redistricting
- Adding a Political Party
- Dupes
- Political Resources Expectations
- Managing Political Resources
- Defining Major Candidates
