Research Department Candidate Coverage


For the 2014 election cycle, PCT is largely responsible for handling anything submitted by the candidate, while Research is handling researched bios, position papers, and photos. Research will also cover speeches for congressional and gubernatorial challengers once primary elections have taken place in a given state.

see: Scope of Candidate Coverage


Contact Info and Bios

Contact info and Bios are a collaborative effort between the PCT and Research departments. While primarily under the jurisdiction of PCT, Research provides assistance as needed, as both departments are familiar with research and formatting standards.

Biographical information is compiled from the following sources, sometimes over many years (which makes it difficult sometimes to pinpoint where a particular piece of information comes from):

- Campaign websites from any election we have covered now or previously. If there is a third party candidate and all they have is the third party website with their information on it (because they can not afford a personal campaign website or because they want to be affiliated with that party website), we can include that third party website as a Campaign website.
If it specifically states that the candidate provided the information to the website then we can use the bio information on our website. We would not include bio information from that party website if we were unsure of where the information came from. It's very important that we use bio information from an official approved source by that candidate.
- Current office websites
- District websites
- Candidate run social media accounts
- Newspaper/magazine articles
- Information submitted by the candidate (handled by PCT). While we do send out forms along with the PCT, candidates can update their biographical information at any time

"Biographical information" is basically a candidate's resume, and includes such information as educational background, family information, professional background, organizational membership, political experience, and committee assignments. Our policy is generally to get as much information as possible about a candidate, but we don't always have the time to do it for all candidates, and not all candidates have websites. That being said, all candidates have the opportunity to submit biographical information to us.


Public Statements and Position Papers

Speeches, Public Statements, and position papers are collected verbatim from campaign websites following the primary election through the general election. We may have other speeches attached to that person if they were previously running for an office we covered, or if they are currently in office. Make sure not to duplicate any of the statements. If there are any differences whatsoever, add a new speech_id. If they are exactly the same do not create duplicates. Sometimes, candidates will submit position papers, but we only accept these in electronic form. Our speeches database is vital to our research of candidate's issue positions.

Candidates typically have an "Issues" portion of their website. Content for these portions of the website are directed at particular topics that they are passionate about or topics that are highly contested. Research interns will collect these issue positions for each candidate that provides the issue positions (not regular media links like news articles etc.). Make sure to follow the regulations.


Evaluations of Candidates

Evaluations from special interest groups help voters to understand how well a candidate aligns with a particular interest.

We collect both interest group ratings and endorsements of candidates, though ratings of challengers are hard to come by. One of our major goals for this year is to add more candidate ratings, even if they are in unconventional formats, since our content for challengers is so limited.

We only collect endorsements for the general election, and only from non-media organizations (currently our system cannot properly accommodate any other kinds, and we really don't have the resources to devote to more extensive coverage). Our goal is to get as many as possible, but sometimes we are limited by time and our ability to find the information. Generally, we get endorsements from the following sources, in order of priority:

1) special interest groups that we have collected endorsements from in the past
Search national and state specific branches

2) other special interest groups in our database that have not necessarily endorsed in the past
Search national and state specific branches

3) A simple google search is a great way to find endorsements we missed and new SIGs. "NJ endorsements 2013" "VA Governor endorsements" are examples of the searches. Feel free to expand your search to include key words that you think would be associated with SIGs and endorsements. "Scorecards" "endorse" "rate" "attorney general" "house of delegates" etc. If the search results include SIGs that we do not have in our database, ask the ratings department to include that SIG in our database and add the endorsement.
When you find a new endorsement you will (1) add that to admin and (2) print to pdf of the press release or primary source. You will right click and choose print. 'Print to File', change the name of the file to include specifics about the image. "2013VAStateLeg" or "2012SWGubCong" (anything that helps describe the file). You will save it at research/research divisions/profile coverage/Elections/YEARof election/YEAR Endorsements/National OR state specific SIGs/choose the correct SIG folder.
If you get confused on whether a national group rates state specific or vice versa, visit Research FAQ Page

4) if time, those listed by candidates on their campaign websites and those receiving a lot of press. If a candidate lists an endorsement on their campaign website, you should check the SIG website that endorsed them for other endorsements.

We only add something as an endorsement if the group identifies it as such, otherwise we will try to add it as a rating. Ideally, we need a print out from the group's website or a signed letter that confirms the endorsement. When in doubt, we will call the group to verify.


Researched Photos

Photos are generally considered one of our lowest-priority items. Usually if we have extra time, we would prefer to devote it to updating more candidates' biographical information. However, for the VoteEasy, we absolutely need to have quality photos for every single general election Congressional candidate. Photos are retrieved from one of three sources: their campaign website, their office website, or submitted by the candidate.


Campaign Finance

We retrieve federal campaign finance data from the Center for Responsive Politics (opensecrets.org) and state-level data from the Institute on Money in State Politics (followthemoney.org). It is our responsibility to make sure we match our candidate IDs with theirs, so that the data can be pulled. Otherwise, we just have to make sure everything is displaying properly.


Vote Easy

Planning and Infrastructure:

The Research Department and Key Votes Department will suggest and review StandardizedEvidenceforVoteEasy issue position research in collaboration with the Political Courage Test Department. They will consider the standardized research in terms of comprehensiveness, whether it is appropriate to suggest an issue position, the relative strength of each each piece of evidence, and whether the piece of evidence can act as a sole determinator for a candidate's position.

The Research Department and Key Votes Department will also need to suggest, review, and continuously update the standard list of data being used to populate the other areas of content on VoteEasy profiles besides issue positions (candidate bios, candidate interest group ratings, candidate endorsements, key votes, campaign finance). This should be started well before the release of the first election data to the tool for the year and periodically reevaluated during election season. For each office, you will need to verify and communicate to IT the following:

Any display changes, including:
Updated data for each election, done by associations (see: http://mantis.votesmart.org/view.php?id=6369 for templates):

Each department will be responsible for the categories of data under their purview and will need to verify that individual candidate's data is displaying as intended and without issues. This means, for example, that before a release of a state's content to VoteEasy, all candidates in that state should have photos, campaign finance IDs, endorsements done, bios done, and interest group ratings up-to-date.

In addition, the Research Department should set up a plan in collaboration with PCT for notifying PCT of updates to candidate position papers, pledges, endorsements, and any other key data that might help VoteEasy researchers assign a candidate an issue position.



Release of Data to the Public:

The PCT department will give the Research department a calendar of release dates for VoteEasy by state, and update the Research Department with any changes to the calendar.

Before a state is released onto VoteEasy, Research will need to complete and check the following for Congressional GE incumbents and challengers:

-make sure we have endorsements for the given issue categories/states if available. The issue categories to focus on would be the most recent list of categories matched to VoteEasy categories for the display of endorsements. This could be found from state or federal groups, as long as they endorse Congressional candidates. It would help if we also did endorsements for other issue categories and offices, but these are less priority.

-Make sure the current year's NRA ratings are released for that state, as well as any other rating that includes both incumbents and challengers

-Make sure everyone that will be displaying has campaign finance IDs

-Make sure bios are done and checked for that state and office, particularly focusing on newly-added candidates

-Make sure photos are imported and are all look okay in the dimension being displayed on VoteEasy

-Fix mission statements for all endorsement and rating groups we are using


Once data is released onto VoteEasy, and throughout the election season, the Research Department will be responsible for verifying that all data normally collected by the Research Department is displaying accurately and appropriately.


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