Manually Creating An Election

Seth Hansen

The Rayos Election tool allows you to create and manage all of your races for an election. Follow the steps below to create an election date and the corresponding races.

Creating The Date

To create an election first you have to set up a Date. The date will allow you to group all the races happening on the same day together. To create a new Date:

  1. Navigate to Elections > Date.
  2. In the left side of the screen, under Add New Date, click in the Name field.
  3. Select the date of the election.
  4. Click the Add New Date button to save.

Creating Areas

If you would like to group and display your elections results, it can be helpful group your races by Area for easy display on the site. Think of these “Areas” like a race category. They can be things like states, counties, cities, etc. You assign them to each race and then you can choose with area within a certain election date to display on your results page. To create a new Area:

  1. Navigate to Elections > Areas.
  2. In the left side of the screen, under Add New Area, click in the Name field.
  3. Enter the name of the area as you would like it to appear on the site and ignore all other fields.
  4. Click the Add New Are button to save.

Once the area is created it will be available to assign to your races (see below). Also, once the area is created, it will be available for all subsequent elections.

Note: Using Areas is optional and only necessary if you would like to split up your results into different sections on a page or different pages entirely.

Creating A Race

Once the Date is created, you’ll need to set up each race for the election. Ahead of election day, set up each race as either an individual race or a ballot question. To access the races:

    1. Navigate to Elections > Add New or go to Elections > All Races
    2. Click on the Add New button at the top of the page.
    3. Start by giving the race a Title in the field at the top of the page. This will appear large above the race results on your website.
    4. Fill in the Description if needed. This is to provide additional information on the race or ballot question. Description will display smaller under the Title.
    5. Next choose your Type. You have the option between a Race or a Ballot Question. Choosing Race will allow you to add candidates and choose their party. Choosing Ballot Question will allow you to add answers and assign them colors.
    6. Set the total number of Precincts voting on this race. You will be able to update the number of reporting precincts when editing the results.
    7. Choose the Race Date from the drop down. This is the date you created earlier and allow you to group all your elections on the website.
    8. If applicable, assign the Race Area from the drop down. You will be able to use this to group all of your races by area for display on the site.
    9. If you are using the Collapsed feature, on your election results page, you can use the Featured Race option to ensure that this particular race stays expanded. If not using the Collapsed display of the results, this toggle will have no effect.
    10. If you wish to display images of the candidates above the race results, select the Number of Images here. You can choose up to 4. These images will display in the order that the candidates are entered until results are entered. Then they will be ordered by the number of votes received. Note: Minimum height for election images is 300px. Width is dependent on number of images displayed and container width. If 2 images are selected, the minimum width of the image should be 390px. More images displayed on the race will reduce the displayed image width. 
    11. Click the button to Add Candidate or Add Answer.
      1. For a candidate, add the Name, select the Party, and check whether or not this candidate is the Incumbent. Note that each Party is color coded on the website  and the results bars will reflect that predetermined color. You can also add a Candidate Image, to be displayed on the results page (see example below).
      2. For a ballot question answer, add your Label and the select a Color. You can select any color you want and it will just help differentiate the results bars for your viewers (see example below).
      3. You have a few additional options with your candidates and answers. If you would like to update the order, click the number on the left and drag the candidate/answer to the appropriate position. You can also delete a candidate/answer by hovering over it and clicking on the (-) sign on the right.
    12. Click Publish to save the race and make it available to add to the website.

Note: Published races will not appear on the site until the Date or Race is added to a page or article.

Example Election:

[gtx_elections race_date_id=”174″]