How to handle candidates who don't qualify for ballot?

[ckingbailey]

Currently we show candidates who have filed an intention to run form (501). Not all of those candidates will qualify to make it on the ballot. Should we continue to show them all the way until the day of the election? There is a cutoff in August to qualify for the ballot. Probably we should use that cutoff as the date on which to stop showing candidates that have no qualified for the ballot.

Also, should we show an indication of whether a candidate has qualified for ballot yet?

[anlawyer]

I think this was more prevalent earlier in the year when candidates were less-defined, but I believe we have now refined the spreadsheet/our data to only be showing candidates who have officially qualified for the ballot, now that the deadline has passed. Is that right @sfdoran ?

[sfdoran]

My preference is to take candidates who do not have a committee and effectively drop out of the election by not making the ballot off the site - they have no data AND they are not on the ballot.

People who don't make the ballot but have a campaign committee with data should stay because it shows the full picture of campaign funding and spending.

[mikeubell]

@sfdoran Alex and I decided to just remove those not on the ballot yesterday. Today I was reviewing old issues and came across your comment here. I would imagine if we keep them on the site we should mark them somehow as not being on the ballot.

[sfdoran]

@mikeubell I am okay with taking them out. Will removing candidates who did raise funds, but then dropped out, affect the calculations for the election totals on our landing page or election summary pages? i.e., will the contributions and spending of candidates who have data but don't make the ballot decrease the total funds we attribute the election?