Entering Candidate Lists

Once you have found and prepared a new candidate list and determined it was not suitable for import, follow these guidelines:


Entering New Candidates for an Election


Always follow the same order of doing things when entering candidates- this will make you less likely to skip-a-step. Remember to save all changes!

Selecting/Adding a Candidate
  1. Search by Office Seeking, that will give you everyone who is in the election.
  2. At the bottom, click on Add New Candidate.
  3. Fill in the candidate's name as it appears on the candidate list. This is the part to be most careful. Be aware of nicknames and other potential name issues that could come up. If they have a super common name, google them and see if you can find anything that says they previously ran for an office we cover.
    1. Be thorough when looking at the list of potential dupes. If the person has a middle name/their last name is listed slightly different in admin, they may be at the bottom of the list.
  4. If you find a candidate that matches, click on their ID number. This will take you to the candidates profile in Admin.
  5. If you are sure that they are not already in Admin , click on Proceed With Insert and then Save.
  6. Either way, go to the Elections tab, and click on Add New election. Choose the appropriate election/office/district from the drop down menus. Be sure to check this, as the drop down can sometimes be fickle, and it’s easy to click the wrong info.
  7. Be sure to include the ballot name from the candidate list, especially if they have a weird nickname or middle name etc. This also helps prevent dupes, so feel free to check this info when entering candidates.
  8. A weird quirk of Admin is that there are 2 Congressional elections, make sure that it has the state name in front when you save it (ie Montana Congressional 2016, not Congressional 2016), otherwise they won’t show up on the site. (It has to do with PCT testing stuff, if you're curious)
  9. Then, next to the election you just added, click View Stages and then Add New.
  10. The Status will always be Running, and they will 99% of the time be in the Primary. Be sure to add their party. If it’s a weird third party not already in Admin, mark them as Other.
  11. If for some reason you can’t find the election/there is no primary/other weird thing let your supervisor know, or add the election if you have permissions.



Bio Tab
  1. For new candidates, add the candidates complete name, including nicknames and suffixes if they are provided on the candidate list. (See our Guidelines for Entering Names). For existing candidates do not change the name without your supervisor's approval, only add to it.
  2. Occasionally, there will be biographical information on the candidate list. If we don't already have it, add it in accordance with our Formatting Guidelines for Biographical Information.

Elections Tab
  1. Go to the elections tab. See if that election is listed there already- if so, investigate further to see if it is just incomplete, or if it is indeed a separate instance of that person being on the ballot. 99% of the time, you will want to "Add a New" election
  2. Select the appropriate state, election, office seeking, district seeking, and political party. Make sure you distinguish between the Assembly, House, and Senate for Office Seeking. U.S. Senate candidates receive a [blank] district. CA, NJ, NV, NY, and WI are assembly states, and Nebraska's unicameral legislature is a Senate.
  3. Select "View Stage(s)." Select the appropriate election status and election stage, then press save (leave the votes received, percentage of total votes, and delegates field blank- this is for official election results only). The default election status for candidates on the ballot should be "Running." The political party should be as listed. All people should have a party selected in our system, even if it says something like "No Party Affiliation." Hold down the Control Key to select multiple political parties if necessary. If a political party is not listed, consult with your supervisor. ,As of 2016, we are cleaning up and trying to limit the political parties that we have in our database. Only add a new party if your supervisor agrees. If not, use Other. and then fFollow the instructions for Adding a Political Party if a party needs to be added. Be sure to save this page.


Addresses Tab
  1. Click on the addresses tab. Campaign addresses are on the left hand side. Be sure to select the proper election, and do not touch the office addresses.
  2. Follow our formatting guidelines for adding addresses. The most important thing to remember is that we spell out all abbreviations in addresses:
Campaign Address
Entering New Addresses
City, State & Zip
Phone & Fax Numbers
E-Mail & Web Addresses
  1. Consult with your supervisor to see if, at this point, we want to be searching for addresses, phone numbers, websites, and emails for those candidates that don't have this information on the candidate list. This is usually done with the Profiles sub department, and usually near the time of a mass contact for candidates.
    1. If the candidate list has a campaign website, go to that. If the candidate list does not have a campaign website, perform a google search of the "candidate's name" (try nicknames too) in quotes then type in the state and the office they are running for (ex. "Jane Doe" North Carolina House or "John Doe" Colorado Senate). If this doesn't work, try just their name and the word "campaign." If the candidate has a homepage, copy and paste the URL into Admin as a Campaign Website.
    2. Once on the candidate's homepage, look for additional contact information- there should be a "contact us" link somewhere on the page. If not just poke around the site to see if you can't find one. Add any new campaign contact information under that candidate's current election. If you are dealing with multiple campaign offices, make sure that you keep the phone and fax numbers with the proper address. See ResearchingExtendedContactInfo for complete instructions


Repeat this process for all candidates needing to be added. Date and initial the list activity log give the sheet to your supervisor.


Checks of Candidate Lists in Admin (for First Entry of Candidate List Only)


Search by Office Seeking for Active: Now. If a candidate was properly added, they will show up when doing an Office Seeking search. It is your job to make sure the roster in admin matches the roster of the original candidate list. If a person is not showing up, do a last name search to find them and be sure to fix their elections info. In general, this happens because the stage was not added. There is also an SQL query that will find a list of people without stages. For ease of checking, sort the candidate list so that it matches the original candidate list. All election tab info can be checked from this roster- make sure each candidate has the appropriate district seeking, political party, election stage, and election status. Then, check each person's profile against the original candidate list:

Bio Tab

Make sure the name on the original candidate list matches that on the Bio page. Sometimes we may have a variation of the name in our system- only add information- do not delete any extra information on the Bio page. Also keep in mind that sometimes SOS offices make a mistake- if you suspect this search other sources.


Releasing Candidates to the Live Web



Final Webcheck of New Candidates

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