Office Election and Appointment Dates
The following information is for the offices tab in admin. It relates to elected and current officials holding office. By having this information, Vote Smart provides a more comprehensive image of a politician's length in office.
All dates must be in one of the following formats, in order of preference: mm/dd/yyyy ; mm/yyyy ; yyyy
First Elected/Appointed
If the person was elected by the public, whether through a special or regular election, select "Elected." If the person was chosen by a party, county commission, legislative body, or another official, select "Appointed." Enter the date (mm/dd/yyyy) that the election or appointment took place. Usually elected officials will explicitly say "I was first elected in November 2022", in which case you would put 11/2022. An easy way to find more detail is to view the elections tab in admin. DO NOT EDIT or DELETE anything in the elections tab of admin. You should only be checking to see if we have more information for first elect dates. If you see an error, tell the Elections Monitoring Associate or the Elections Director. Though highly unlikely, if no date can be found, you may leave the field empty.
First Took Office (when they were sworn into that office)
Put the first date in which that person would be considered as taking office, whether or not that office is currently in session. Think of it as the day you'd start your new job. When searching for this date you might want to search for the phrases "swear in," "sworn in," or "took office." If there is no first “took office” date but they do have a first elected date, chances are they go hand in hand. If they were elected in a month other than November, chances are they won a special election in which case you need to be much more careful about the first “took office” date. We can assume that they took office that same year but not necessarily that same month. Do a brief google search to determine when.
Left Office
Fairly straight forward. This might be the day that the person submitted their resignation, the day the person died, or the day their replacement took over (if that person was elected). This information can be found from a media source or by calling that office. Those with an active, elected, or nominated status should NOT have a "Left office" date.
- If a person resigns from Congress and we don't fill in “Left Office,” he/she still appears in imported votes, which can lead to confusion. So, make sure to ALWAYS fill this out.
Status of Office
- Active - already sworn into office.
- Elected - elected to the office but not yet sworn in (this should be updated to "active" on the appropriate date).
- Inactive - reasons may include: died in office, did not seek re-election at term-end/retired, lost an election, won a special election to a different seat, term-limited, unsure of why an official left office.
- Nominated - used for federal judicial nominees. Federal judicial nominees must be confirmed before they become 'active'.
- Resigned - only used when the politician has officially resigned. This information is usually found in the news updates.
