Locating Candidate Lists
Locating State Election Websites
It is our job to find out who is running for office. The best place to look for this information is on the state elections office (often, but not always, under the Secretary of State) website. The State of Wyoming has links to every state board of elections on their website. Searching for the state abbreviation and "elections" or "candidate list" will work well too, especially if a site is hard to navigate.
Finding A Comprehensive Roster
Scour the state elections office website for candidate lists. Be aware that many states will have multiple lists. In case of multiple lists, examine all lists (which may include primary candidate lists, general election candidate lists, withdrawals/removals/replacements, and lists of the 3rd party/independent candidates) to develop a comprehensive and up-to-date candidate list.
States generally post candidate lists shortly after filing deadlines. There are some states that will have preliminary lists available before the filing deadline (these are useful if you can distinguish who is actually on the ballot versus who is just pending).
If a candidate list is not available a few days after the filing deadline, is missing key information, or there is no data file available, contact the elections office and see if they can email one to you- sometimes they will have them in office but not post them on the website. Candidates for office are public information. If for some reason, the state does not have a list at all, go to the political parties as a last resort. If you are talking about statewide or Congressional offices, you may have luck looking at a sample ballot from a county's election office. To save yourself as much trouble as possible with exception candidates, it is better to side with having too many candidates in an election than to miss any potential candidates. This is particularly important for the PCT, to ensure that all candidates are given equal testing time. Be sure that candidates are not marked as failed on the PCT if they are no longer running in an election. Official state provided lists are the standard for our data though- this is one of our PCT defense mechanisms.
Ideally, we are looking for a Certified/Official Candidate List. If States do not have a Certified Candidate List, you may need to use Ballotpedia's Candidate List. If you use Ballotpedia's information make sure to check with the state's Official Candidate List as soon as it is available.
Some notable situations with State candidate lists to be aware of:
- Connecticut: Special Election candidates did not show up on the Secretary of State website. Candidates were found by searching the database of the Connecticut State Election Enforcement Commission.
- Virginia: Some districts choose the party nominees by conventions instead of primaries. For candidates running in conventions, verify list on Ballotpedia with another source such as FEC and/or Open Secrets
- Nevada: Candidate List split into 3 places, Nevada Secretary of State, Clark County Clerk, and Washoe County Clerk. Make sure to use all 3 candidate lists to get a complete list of candidates.
- Ohio: Secretary of State did not publish the list on the website. Ask the Secretary of State directly to receive the candidate list.
- New York: We use Ballotpedia to create the candidate list, since the New York State Board of Elections did not have candidates who were in districts contained within a single county. We first only listed candidates listed in both Ballotpedia and CRP/NIMP, before using the complete Ballotpedia list.
- Utah: To get on the ballot in Utah, candidates have the option of going through a convention or getting signatures to be on the ballot for the primary election. Wait for the Utah Secretary of State to list candidates who are certified to be on the ballot for the primary election.
Finding Comprehensive Contact Information
Ideally, we want to have a candidate list with complete contact information (mailing addresses, website addresses, emails, and phone numbers). In some cases, the candidate list will have some of this information, but not all of it. In some cases, you can request this information from the election authority. In other cases, however, they do not collect this information when filing. In these cases, you may need to do outside research. In general, this is the role of the Profiles department, but you may need to help. Two good places to start are the campaign finance system in the state, or the Federal Election Commission for federal candidates. You should also collaborate with the bios department, as they also look for addresses. Also, some states file in counties instead of at the state level, so you may need to look at county sites as well.
Preparing Candidate Lists for Processing
- Save the Candidate Lists in the appropriate folder located in Vote Smart drive.
- The folder can be found in the drive by clicking on research=>Active=>Research Programs=>Elections Monitoring Unit=>Election Year
- If the folder is not created yet, create the folder in the appropriate Election year. Be sure to create a separate folder for Special Elections.
- An example of how a folder should be titled is (Ex. IA_General(Election Stage)_C(Type of office. If the list includes every office, leave this section out)_Official/Unofficial (is the list a Certified List?)_Retrieved 04.20.2018 )
Adding Candidates
To add candidates, you must be very careful not to create any [[http://wiki.votesmart.org/Dupes duplicates].1. First thing you should do is search for the candidate by lastname and narrow the search by clicking on the state. Doing so will narrow the range of potential candidates you are looking for, making it easier to see if your candidate is already in the system. If a candidate is already in the database, make sure it is the same person you see on the candidate list (Check if they ever ran for the same office/same region/state, and/or if they have the same contact info from their previous election)
Be on the lookout for candidates who may be in our system under a nickname (Ex. Robert VS Bob, Johnny VS John). Another thing you should keep an eye out is Suffixes (Ex. Jr. Sr.), since it's not uncommon for both the parent and the child to run for office. (Sometimes against each other for the same seat)
2. After you are fairly certain that a candidate is not in our system, click on the Add New Candidate button.
3. Enter the first, middle, and last name of the candidate, Select the State and hit Search.
4. The next section will pull up a list of names in our system that is similar to the candidate you are entering. Make sure to glance through the first 10 names to confirm that you are not creating dupes. This list is good to find candidates, who were previously in our system, but have run in different states. (Ex. Mitt Romney's home state was listed in MA, before he ran in Utah 6 years later)
5. When you hit Proceed Insert, fill out the first, middle, last name, and the Home State of the Candidate. Hitting Save will then create the Candidate.
6. Click on the Elections Tab
7. Click on Add New
8. Select the State, the specific election, Office Type, District they are running in (If applicable), and their Ballot Name.
9. Click on View Stages, and then select which election stage the candidate is running in.
10. Set the election status of the candidate to Running and select the Political Party that they represent in the election.
Do not forget to add which Election Stage the candidate is running in.
Character Limits with Last Name
When adding candidates to Admin, there seems to be a character limit for the last name. If you were to hit this limit, move a portion of the last name to middle name and proceed creating the candidate. Once you create the candidate, the character limit on the last name will be removed, allowing you to enter the full last name.Unopposed Primary Election Candidates & Third Party Candidates (Congressional Elections)
- We will list unopposed primary election candidates, running in Congressional Primary Elections, as actively running in the Primary Election.
- For 3rd party candidates who are running unopposed in the primary, we will list them as running in the General Election.
- (Exceptions for CA, LA, and WA which have Primary Elections, where every candidate regardless of party affiliation runs in the same primary)
Unopposed Primary Election Candidates (Gubernatorial & Statewide & State Judicial & State Legislature Elections)
- If a State Level Candidate is unopposed in the primary election, the candidate should be listed as running in the General Election, instead of the Primary Election.
- There is no need to add a Primary Election stage for the Unopposed primary election candidate. Just mark them as running in the General Election.
- Doing so would allow Profiles and other departments to prioritize their research on candidates with contested primaries, which would ultimately help more voters.
Write-in policy
Currently, we only cover write-in candidates if they win the primary,or if the media suggests they have a chance to win the election. In the past, our policy for write-in candidates was as follows:If we have already entered that state's candidate list and it merely needs an update, follow the directions for Updating Candidate Lists
