Releasing Candidates to the Live Web
Candidates' election information will not appear on the live website and may not appear at all on Vote Smart's apps until they are released. Do not release candidates until the approved number of checks have been completed or an exception is approved by your supervisor.
To release an election:
- In Admin, select "Elections" under "Data"
- Select the appropriate election. Make sure that you select the proper year and office!
- Select "Stage(s)" for that election and select the stage of candidates you are dealing with.
- Select "Live Web" for both "Release status of this election stage" and "Candidate release status" to "Live Web." Do not, under any circumstances touch "NPAT Release Status" or "Election Result Release Status." If you do so by accident, immediately notify your supervisor.
Changing Election Result Release Status will automatically change everyone who is listing as "Running" in an election stage to having "Lost" that election stage. If you advance election results by mistake and there are only a few candidates involved, manually change their election status back to running, and on the Bio Page under Political Experience, delete the candidate info for that election (we only put this up for election losers, not current candidates)
- Perform a quick check on the live web to verify the candidates for each state and office are appearing, and that all are listed as "Running" if appropriate. Make corrections as needed.
Unreleasing an election (going from live to internal or admin) should only be done to remove an election due to error, such as a mistaken release. If for some reason a re-release seems needed, please email geeks@votesmart.org geeks@votesmart.org.
Once a new candidate list has been released to the live web, add that state to your weekly reports. Submit your weekly report to the PCT Director and Research Director every Friday morning. Date and initial the list activity log and put in the tray for the appropriate next-check.
