Template talk:Election results

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Designation of incumbency

Bwheeler asked about using bold for incumbency; specifically the potential confusion caused by the bolding of non-incumbents on the candidate's page. I'm answering here as it affects all the election templates.

I had had a similar moment of panic about that as well, but realized that we shouldn't use the phrase "bold indicates incumbents" on the candidate pages. For the moment, that is only included (unless someone added it) on the election results pages. So, the first potential solution is to ignore the problem.

Candidates Votes %
Kay Slaughter 3,648 56.00
David Toscano 3,229 49.57
Darden Towe 3,150 48.36
Edward Brooks 2,637 40.48

, with the "bold indicates incumbents" ONLY on the elections page.

Not terribly satisfying, of course, but not an emergency. And it would be nice to know the incumbents anywhere results are shown. So, other thoughts: My opinion is that it's better to use words not symbols, e.g., for the 1990 City Council election:

Candidates Votes %
Kay Slaughter (incumbent) 3,648 56.00
David Toscano (incumbent) 3,229 49.57
Darden Towe 3,150 48.36
Edward Brooks 2,637 40.48


Two other, more complicated options: extra parameters, where you would have a toggle to turn the bolding on/off; you'd have it on for the elections pages, and off for the candidate pages. Or, use the page name to do the same thing; I think that's possible but not really sure; again, you'd turn the bolding on if the referring page name contained election, and bolding off if it did not.

Erring on the side of simplicity, I think i like the second option best. B.S. Lawrence 19:40, 2 July 2009 (EDT)

Designation of victors

I'm happy with NOT designating the victors directly in the table. In most elections, it's clear that the winner is the winner -- it's the basic concept of elections and I thought goes without saying. The text for multiple winners: "Voters could cast two votes, one for each of the two seats available, hence the percentages do not total 100%." needs work anyway (i.e., I'm still not sure how the percentages are calculated), but I thought "each of the two seats" made the "winners" clear in the same way as single-winner elections, but if it doesn't, I'd recommend clarifying the winners in the text. Maybe "The top two candidates were elected"? or something like that? B.S. Lawrence 19:40, 2 July 2009 (EDT)

Parties, other info in the table?

While we're on the subject, it might be nice to know the party under which the candidate ran. It could be done in line,

Candidates Votes %
Kay Slaughter-D (incumbent) 3,648 56.00
David Toscano-D (incumbent) 3,229 49.57
Darden Towe-R 3,150 48.36
Edward Brooks-I 2,637 40.48


(Adding columns is more work but might be nice)? Or it could be done with colors, which I can't get to work right this second, but see here for something close. B.S. Lawrence 19:40, 2 July 2009 (EDT)