Candidate-Submitted Political Courage Tests, Bios, and Photos


The Political Courage Test Administrator will be responsible for processing incoming Political Courage Tests and handling or delegating the work of processing candidate-submitted bios and photos. Processing a Political Courage Test entails confirming consent, confirming the candidate passed, and uploading the test to the Vote Smart website.

Candidates must provide consent before their tests can be processed. The Political Courage Test Administrator and trained staff will be responsible for confirming consent before processing each test. Acceptable forms of consent are as follows:

Threshold to Pass

To pass the test, a candidate must adhere to a previously determined standard. In the past, candidates have been required to answer roughly 70 percent of the questions at least, using the yes/no options and/or the "expanded principles." The Political Courage Test Administrator will be the primary individual responsible for determining whether a candidate has passed or failed (using the 70 percent benchmark), although others can help with this task after training. If questions arise about whether a candidate has passed, the Political Courage Test Administrator will make the final decision, except in rare cases when a director's input is required. An acceptable "pass" on the test can include all yes/no answers, all expanded principles, or a mix of both, as long as the candidate meets the threshold of roughly 70 percent.

Passing Candidates/Releasing Tests

Most candidates submit their tests online, via secure.votesmart.org. However, some candidates submit hand-written tests by mail, using the test forms available on the Vote Smart website (as previously uploaded during test creation).

Processing Online Test Submissions

Processing Mailed Test Forms

Failing Candidates/Passing Late Candidates

Candidates submitting their tests after the pre-determined deadline for their group will either fail or receive a late designation, depending on how late they submit their tests. The Political Courage Test Administrator may choose to allow a grace period after the official deadline, during which candidates may still "pass" the test. Candidates who submit their tests after the grace period but before the election will receive either a "Primary-Late" or "General-Late" status depending on the election. Mark this status instead of "Passed" during test processing (see above) using the "Status" drop-down menu. Candidates who submit their answers after the election will fail, but we can still post their answers.

Avoid discussing any candidate's Political Courage Test status with any other candidates.

There is no need to mark a candidate as "failed." Rather, the Political Courage Test Administrator will be responsible for updating each appropriate office's NPAT Release Status. To do this, select "Elections" under "Data" on the left-hand side of the admin homepage. Scroll to correct state and office for the test or tests you're releasing and click "Stages." Under the heading "NPAT Release Status", click "Live Web." Repeat this step for each state/office in the group. Hitting this button after the deadline will automatically fail all candidates who aren't marked as "passed," "late" "courtesy" or "added" candidates. The function references the appropriate dates for each grouping previously set by IT. For this reason, this step must happen no earlier than midnight the night of the deadline. Typically, the Political Courage Test Administrator will do this right away the morning after the deadline.

After this step, candidates will appear on the website as "failed" if they did not take the test and we had at least a physical mailing address or email on file (where they received at least two communications). See ExceptionCandidates for details about designating candidates who lack contact information. We cannot remove candidates' "fail" messages on request unless they lack an address, email address, and contact logs.

Board Members

Current officials on the Votes Smart board are required to submit a Political Courage Test. The Political Courage Test Administrator, Elections Research Director, or National Director should provide additional reminders to any board members whose tests are missing as the deadline approaches.

Editing Tests

While not encouraged, candidates may change or add to their answers. However, candidates may not have access to edit their own tests online after hitting the "submit" button. If a candidate wishes to edit their test before the election but cannot access it online, the edit can be handled through email or over the phone. If a candidate wishes to edit their test after the election, the Political Courage Test Administrator should make a note that that candidate changed their answers, including the date of the change, and include this information in the "Other or Expanded Principles" section.

To denote a changed answer/s from a candidate, follow this formatting to be included in the expanded principles section:
CHANGED ANSWERS FOR QUESTIONS "_", "_" and "_":

On <date>, <candidate-name> changed "_" to "", "_" to "" and "_" to ""

If including this in the expanded principle extend over the allotted 100 words, the candidate submitted answer would be cut off at the point of 100 words, as the denotion of a changed answer is of higher importance than the candidate response.

You can see an example of proper formatting for edited answer under the 2016 NPAT Form at candidate here: https://admin.votesmart.org/candidateNpat.do?candidateId=171694

Candidate-Submitted Bios

The Political Courage Test Administrator and/or other trained staff will be responsible for sorting bio submission emails in politicalcourage@votesmart.org and processing candidate-submitted bios. It's important for the individual processing the bios to have some Profiles training, to ensure the bio information is filled out correctly. As with the test, most candidates submit bio forms through secure.votesmart.org, although some may submit a hand-written bio form (available on the website). During high-volume testing periods, processing tests takes priority over processing bios.

Online Bio Forms
- This will auto-fill the submitted info, but in most cases, it will not be properly formatted

Hand-Written Bio Forms

Candidate-Submitted Photos

Candidates can submit their photos through secure.votesmart.org, which encourages them to use the politicalcourage@votesmart.org email. Monitor the inbox for these submissions (it helps to sort them into their own folder). During high-volume testing periods, processing tests takes priority over processing photos. For staff members processing photos, it helps to have two folders, named "Photos to Crop" and "Cropped." Save all submitted photos to the "Photos to Crop" folder and process them using the photo processing guidelines.

Candidates are sometimes impatient when their photos don't appear right away. Photo processing usually takes a couple days but can take longer during high-volume testing periods and busy periods for IT. Feel free to notify candidates that photo processing takes time.





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