Project:RaceTracker/Community Portal

This page contains resources for the community maintaining the RaceTracker project on OpenCongress.

For more discussion, see the RaceTracker forum.

How to participate
You can edit any race in any state by clicking on the "edit with form" tab at the top of any article. (You have to be registered to edit, which you can do by clicking "Join OpenCongress" up in the top-right corner.)


 * Tip: Use the candidate criteria page to distinguish between those that are "potential" vs. "rumored," etc.

Just remember to past the url of the source you got your information from in the "source" field and note the date of publication. You can also leave a note in the "Reference notes" box to clarify anything.

There's not really a place to do it here, but we have to remind you that the RaceTracker is not a place for any rhetoric supporting or opposing candidates for election. There's plenty of blogs and other social media for that.

Feel free to discuss the site or things like the sourcing or intricacies of particular candidate classifications on the RaceTracker page in the OpenCongress forums.


 * Help keep an eye on things by watching the changes to RaceTracker pages at this "related changes" page!

Initial candidate survey

 * Fill-in current state of House races
 * Fill-in current state of Senator races
 * Fill-in current state of Governor races

Misc. content

 * Special articles (highlighting interesting content - i.e. link-worthy) (See RaceTracker front page.)
 * Incumbents facing primary challenges - general reports of unchallenged incumbents, etc. (Conor)

Project pages

 * Establish criteria for candidacy classifications
 * Build-out "How to participate" section on this page.
 * Establish guidelines for participation by campaigns in candidate profiles (Conor)


 * Improve homepage
 * Contact info - see blank below (all)
 * Better interface for selecting states (Conor)
 * "About" section (Done on main page now.)


 * (Very) short bios/links for major participants:
 * Conor Kenny
 * Benawu Benawu
 * David NYC (username pending)
 * User:JamesL

2008 races

 * Build CSV for 2008 results
 * Install 2008 results after CSV is available. (Conor)
 * Display 2008 candidates on seat-specific pages based on 2008 tracking (Conor)

Misc. mechanics and design

 * Link to the criteria for candidacy classifications from seat-specific pages.
 * Feed from forums in project pages (Conor)
 * Fix "2010 value label in senator races" (Conor)
 * Build the candidate profile generator (Conor)
 * Display pictures on seat-specific pages (Conor plus a community project)
 * Url redirect from http://RaceTrackerWiki.com to http://www.opencongress.org/wiki/Project:RaceTracker
 * Link to the criteria for candidacy classifications from seat-specific pages. (Conor)
 * Convert over old candidate pages - not in RaceTracker per se, but very related. (Conor)
 * Fix the external links on the governor pages. (Conor)
 * Fix the senate district maps. (Conor)

How to create a new RaceTracker page

 * 1) Create a new page
 * 2) Add the text "  " at the beginning of a page for the RaceTracker logo w/ the RSS feed or "  " for the logo without the feed. This is important as it also puts the page in the Category:Project:RaceTracker so it can be identified and changes can be tracked.

Templates and widgets used in RaceTracker

 * Template:RaceTracker no RSS
 * Template:Number conversion
 * Template:Nowrap
 * Widget:OpenSecrets Race Widget
 * Template:Imagemap USA states
 * Template:Race status
 * Template:2010 election dashboard
 * Template:Last election status
 * Template:District offices
 * Template:Next election status

Contact/Participants
The RaceTracker project on OpenCongress is coordinated by the SwingStateProject with support from the OpenCongress team. You can contact any of us via our user talk pages linked-to below or email the directly at [mailto:JamesL@swingstateproject.com SwingStateProject team] or the [mailto:writeus@opencongress.org OpenCongress team].

RaceTracker is a community project open to participation by all. Please add your name/username below if you'd like people to know you're participating and so they can contact you via your user talk page.

Swing State Project organizers


 * Benawu
 * DavidNYC
 * James L

OpenCongress helpers


 * Conor Kenny
 * Avelino Maestas

Participants:


 * Ben S. (username pending)