Entering and Modifying Election Results Into Admin
View Candidates' Election Statuses:
- On the main page of Admin, look on the left hand side. Under Candidates/Officials there is a link to "Elections." This will take you to the "Elections" page of every candidate that you search for and will save you some time, since you will only be dealing with the "Elections" page.
- Go to "by Office Seeking," make sure Active: Now is selected, and select the office type that you are working on. Not all states have every office up for election every year, but it is always a good idea to check the Elections page in admin for a list of elections, just in case the results you found are incomplete.
- All the candidates should appear on the list when you search Admin by the office seeking "running candidates" page, unless the candidate list was entered incorrectly. IF there are inconsistencies, speak to your supervisor and check the candidate list. From this view, you should be able to review each candidate's election status for their most recent election stage.
- Sort the "running candidates" list the same way as the results, to make entering results easier.
If a Candidate Does Not Appear on the Roster (prior to release/advancement of election results)
- If a candidate is not showing up on the list of running candidates, it is possible that they were missed in entering the list, or were removed from the election in error. In this instance, you should return to the main search page and search by the candidate's last name.
- To avoid dupes (duplicates), it is essential that you NEVER type in a candidate's first name. If it is a somewhat common last name, feel free to limit the search by state. If multiple people with the same or similar names appear, this is a possible dupe situation, in which case you should write down the candidates' ID numbers and put it in the Dupes Google Doc, or tell the person in charge of handling duplicate candidates. Here is a spreadsheet that we use for this: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1urvv4NX3MJvlwxJN96zx6iOB1Qj5S4iqFIS6_F54zSQ/edit
- Go to “Duplicate Check List #3” to start, and just add a new row and enter in as much info as you can. More on this later.
- If the candidate you are looking for is still not appearing, inform the Elections or Officials Director. Instructions for how to add a candidate are also on the wiki.
Modifying a Candidate's Election Status to Won, Lost, or Too Close to Call (Prior to election results release/advancement)
- The beautiful thing about admin is that you do not have to do anything with those that lost the election- they will be marked as "lost" and deactivated automatically once we advance the results. You will simply be dealing with those that have "won" or are "too close to call." Visit each winner's individual page by clicking on their ID.
- Click on "View Stages" for the proper election, select the appropriate election stage, and change the status from "Running" to "Won" or "Too Close to Call." Save, close the window for the individual candidate's page, and return to the "running candidates" page.
- Repeat this process for the next "won" candidate until all winners for all offices have been accounted for.
Once you have the final official certified results, do not forget to add vote percentages and the vote totals for all candidates who have received at least above 25% of the vote (Every candidate who is not running for a State Legislature position). Even if the candidate was unopposed, the vote percentages and vote totals must be recorded. Entering the results from the final official certified results is important since that would mean the researcher will only need to add the votes once, instead of having to go back and check the vote count all over again.
For primary elections where no candidate gets more than 25% of votes, take the vote count & percentage for the candidate who won the election. If two candidates advance to a runoff and neither of them have 25% of the vote, record the vote total and vote percentages for both of the candidates who are advancing to the Runoff Election.
If a state released vote totals but not vote percentages, you must calculate the vote percentages by hand or calculator. You must divide the candidate's vote total by the total number of votes received by all candidates in that election. Remember to include write-in votes (if listed) in the total number of votes received by call candidates.
