Election Website Basics You Should Know
Whether you’re just considering a run for office or you’ve already begun the process, even most local campaigns have an online component. There are many advantages to fundraising and advertising online. You can raise more money, increase exposure, and improve voter turnout.
Here are tips to establish your online presence and plan a website for your political campaign.
Get the right domain name
It all starts with the basics. That’s choosing a good campaign domain name. Simple is often best. And what could be simpler than your own name? If your name is John Jones, go with johnjones.com. If your name is already registered, try a variation of it (e.g., johnqjones.com).
You may want to avoid the year or the elected position you seek in your domain name. What if you win? You may still want to use your website after the election to keep in touch with constituents and recycle the domain for future elections. Again, simple is best.
Don’t make your domain too long. Even though you can have over 60 characters in your domain name, how many voters will actually remember to type a domain name like electjohnjonesformayberrytowncouncil.com?
Pick several domain names before you start, just in case your first choices are already taken.
While it’s possible to register the domain name of an opponent, we don’t recommend doing so. Underhanded tricks like that are easily brought to light and can backfire against you, particularly in smaller campaigns. Also, registering the legal name of an opponent and using it maliciously could get you into legal hot water.
At the same time, there isn’t much use in trying to purchase all of the domain names that could possibly be used against you. Instead, spend your efforts promoting your own message.
Basic political campaign website pages and features
Here’s a quick checklist of pages that any local political campaign website should include:
- Candidate Biography: Background information about the candidate.
- Issues pages: Stake your positions against those of your opponent.
- Endorsements: These can be included on their own page or scattered throughout the website. If you link directly to the source material, it’s even better.
- Campaign news page or blog: Featuring campaign news that is regularly updated.
- Contact or volunteer form: This should be included along with ‘real-world’ contact information. A good volunteer form that suggests ways that a volunteer can help may spur more responses. Someone might not want to do door-to-door solicitation for you, but they might put a sign in their yard or agree to send postcards to neighbors.
- Secure online fund raising.
- Voter registration information: If running for political office, be sure to link to your state’s online registration application.
- Contact Information: This can be for the organization or for specific campaign members (volunteer organizers, etc.).
Online Candidate website setup includes a questionnaire to help you plan your content, site features, and design elements.
Additional website features include:
- Links to your social media and donation pages.
- Ability to upload and download content: This provides easier distribution of policy papers, forms, etc. Let supporters print their own materials.
- Site Policies: Most people don’t read “legalese,” but a good privacy policy helps build trust, particularly with potential donors. It’s best to be restrictive with your privacy policy and promise not to sell or share visitor information with anyone.
- Printable Pages: Allow your visitors to print pages in a printer-friendly format.
Who should run your election campaign website?
Everyone has a role in a local campaign. Generally, the candidate focuses on campaigning; the campaign manager runs the campaign behind the scenes; the volunteer coordinator organizes the volunteer team; etc. Your campaign may want to recruit a volunteer web coordinator. They can post website updates, compose and send e-newsletters, set up your fundraising page, and handle your online advertising.
Whoever maintains your website should be responsible for working with others to maintain the campaign focus and theme online.
So now you know the answer to, “What do I need for a local campaign website?” And that’s just one aspect of running an online campaign. There’s also online fundraising, social media, advertising on the web, and your online reputation to manage.
It’s not easy, but like everything else in a political campaign, it takes proper planning and smart execution.
Running for Office as an Online Candidate is our exclusive e-book, packed with tips and strategies to develop and promote a local campaign website.
5 Key Information Pieces Your Campaign Website Needs
Political campaign websites often miss the simple things.
The design may look fine. The candidate photo may be professional. The donation button may work and is prominent. But if a voter cannot quickly figure out who the candidate is, where the race is, what office is involved, or how to help, the site is not doing its job.
That happens more often than you’d think. After working with local and state campaign websites for years, we’ve seen the same avoidable problems show up again and again: missing locations, outdated election dates, vague issue pages, and contact information that are hard to find.
A campaign website needs to answer these basic questions immediately. It should make things easy for voters, reporters, local organizations, volunteers, donors, and anyone else trying to understand or share your election campaign.
Here are five details every campaign website should include.
1. State/Municipality/Office Sought
Don’t assume visitors know where your campaign is located.
Many campaign websites say something like “Jane Smith for Mayor” without clearly stating the city, town, county, district, or state. That can create confusion, especially when place names are repeated across the country. Be specific.
For example:
Weak: Jane Smith for Mayor
Better: Jane Smith for Mayor of Springfield, Illinois
If you’re running for office in Orange County, specify whether that means Orange County, New York; Orange County, California; Orange County, Florida; or somewhere else.
This is especially important for local candidates. A voter may see your yard sign, hear your name at an event, or come across a social media post and then search for you later. Your website should quickly confirm that they’ve found the right campaign.
At minimum, your site should clearly state:
- the candidate’s full ballot name
- the office sought
- the municipality, county, district, or state
- the election year, when relevant
This information belongs on the home page, the About page, site footer, and only any major issue page.
2. The Election Date
Most voters won’t know when the election is, especially if the election is in the spring or it’s a primary date.
Your website should list your election date clearly, including the year. This is especially important for local races, primaries, special elections, and runoff elections.
Weak: Vote on Election Day
Better: Vote Tuesday, November 5, 2026
If applicable, include:
- primary election date
- general election date
- early voting dates
- absentee or mail ballot deadlines
- voter registration deadline
The year matters. Plenty of old campaign websites remain online long after Election Day. Some still ask people to vote in elections that ended years ago. If your site stays online after the campaign, the date helps visitors understand whether the information is current or historical.
If you run again later, update this information early. Nothing makes a campaign look neglected faster than an old election date on the homepage. This is especially common when a candidate reuses an old website or announces early for a later election cycle.
3. Basic Voting Information
Your website should give voters a clear path to reliable election information.
You do not need to recreate your county or state election website. In fact, it is usually better not to. Summarize the essentials, then link to the official source for details such as voter registration, polling places, early voting, absentee or mail ballot rules, district maps, and deadlines.
For example, a school board candidate website might include:
Election Day is Tuesday, May 14, 2026. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Check your polling place through the county Board of Elections.
Then link directly to the official election office. This keeps the information useful without making the campaign responsible for maintaining every election rule or polling-place update.
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4. Specific Local Issues
Local campaigns should sound local. State campaign websites should address state issues and congressional websites should address national issues. Sometimes local candidates do not stay in their lane. We often see candidates use issue language from larger races, even when the office they are seeking has no direct control over those issues.
Don’t rely on issue language that could apply anywhere. A town board candidate should not just say “fix traffic problems.” Say which traffic problems. Mention Main Street, Route 17, the school drop-off area, or the intersection residents complain about at every meeting.
The same applies to spending, public safety, development, schools, taxes, or local services. A vague line like “I support responsible spending” is generic and easy for a reader to ignore. A more useful version would be: Jane Smith will review the town’s road maintenance budget and push for clearer reporting on project costs.
Specific details show voters that you understand the community and the responsibilities of the office.
This doesn’t mean every issue page needs to become a long policy paper. In many local races, a short explanation with a few concrete examples is enough. The goal is not to make the page longer. The goal is to make it sound like it belongs to your race, not anyone else’s.
5. Full Contact Information
Make it easy for people to reach your campaign.
That includes voters with questions, reporters checking details, local organizations sending candidate questionnaires, donors looking for contribution information, and volunteers who want to help.
At minimum, your site should include a campaign email address or contact form. This can include your campaign mailing address, phone number, and links to your official social media accounts.
If you want to write in the first person, try adding a quote box and a call to action written in the third person.
Don’t want to publish a personal phone number? Use a campaign phone number or contact form. If you don’t want to list a home address, use a campaign mailing address or P.O. box.
Your contact page information has one job, to provide a clear path for people who need to reach the campaign. If people cannot contact you while you are asking for their vote, they may question how responsive you will be if elected.
Bonus Tip: Use the Candidate’s Name
Too many campaign websites are written almost entirely in the first person. The candidate is referred to as “I” or “my,” but the candidate’s actual name barely appears.
For example:
I am running because I believe our town deserves better.
That can work in a personal letter or homepage message, but your site should also use the candidate’s full name.
A clearer version would be: Jane Smith is running for Town Council because she believes Springfield deserves safer streets, better budget oversight, and more responsive local government.
You can still write in the first person where it makes sense. Just make sure the site also clearly states the candidate’s full ballot name, office sought, and location.
This also helps reporters, voter guides, local party pages, and civic organizations get the facts right when they pull information from your website.
Final Check
Before launching or updating your campaign website, ask whether a first-time visitor can answer these questions within a few seconds.
A simple test is to open your website on a phone and pretend you know nothing about the candidate. Within 10 seconds, can you identify the candidate, office, location, election date, and next action? If not, the site needs clearer information.
Don’t only check the homepage. A visitor may land on your About page, Issues page, Donate page, Volunteer page, or a page shared by someone else. Consider every page on your site as a potential landing page.
A political campaign website doesn’t need to be complicated. But it does need to be clear. Your voters and supporter deserve it.
Related:
- Writing Content For Your Campaign Website – Examples
- Write an Optimized Political Press Release
- Creating a Political Campaign Swipe File
Get your campaign website created fast and easy with Online Candidate. Designed for political candidates and organizations, we offer affordable political website packages and options. Find out which package is best for you.
When To Start Your Political Campaign Website
Once you’ve decided to run for office, when should your political campaign website be started? The short answer is as early as you can.
In fact, the process of building a political website will force you to pull together elements you will later need for your print materials and signage. This material includes:
- A logo design
- Candidate photos
- Content, including your candidate bio and issue positions
Putting together the content for a site will actually help pull together the larger elements of your voter advertising.
Have a primary to win?
A website could make all the difference, particularly in local elections. Turnout for primary elections are usually low, and because of this, every vote counts.
Two types of people vote in primary elections
Those people are dedicated party supporters and those who take their voting privileges seriously. Just 20% of eligible voters vote in primaries, and they tend to be more highly partisan than the average voter. Putting up a campaign website during a primary gives the impression that a candidate is in the race for the long haul.
Securing a domain name early gives you an opportunity to promote the site in every piece of campaign literature right from the start. Online information can help influence primary voters who seek out information about the candidates. Once a primary is over, the site content can be expanded and modified to focus on the general election audience.
Waiting until the last minute or following an opponent’s lead limits a campaign website’s effectiveness. By holding off, you’ve lost an opportunity to influence voters. It takes time to build online support, not only through a website, but through social media and other online advertising channels.
By starting late, you will have little time to promote your new site. Just building out a campaign site in response to an opponent’s site can look to many as if you’re simply following the others’ lead. A ‘wanna-be’ site, if you will…
Some candidates for office are required to hold off on campaigning activities during certain times. Judicial candidates, in particular, fall under legal restrictions. Check your election rules for how and when you are able to actively begin campaign activities.
Related: Why Starting Your Campaign Website Early Makes Sense
With Online Candidate, it costs less than a mailing to create a political campaign website for state and local candidates. Having a website created early will give the recipients of your first mailing a destination to find out more about the campaign. They can learn how they can help, and where they can contribute to keep the campaign rolling to election victory.
One Vote Can Make All The Difference
It’s true. A single vote can change the course of a local election – or it can even change history!
Consider these examples:
- By one vote in 1875, France chose a republican rather than a monarchical form of government.
- One vote cost King Charles I of England his head in 1649.
- President Andrew Johnson survived his Senate impeachment trial by a single vote.
- California, Oregon, Texas, and Washington were each admitted as states by a margin of one vote each.
- Two races that tied in Kentucky were decided by coin tosses. (One extra vote, and the tosses wouldn’t have been needed.)
- A tied city council race was decided by the draw of a hat.
For those people that believe their vote doesn’t count, they couldn’t be more wrong. If the course of history was changed by a single vote, imagine what a single vote will do for a local race.
And if that isn’t enough to push for every last voter, consider these quotes:
- “You’ve got to vote, vote, vote, vote. That’s it; that’s the way we move forward.” — Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017
- “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader
- “Someone struggled for your right to vote. Use it.” — Susan B. Anthony, women’s rights activist during the 20th century suffrage movement.
- “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” – Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States
Theoretically, a single ballot could even make the difference in a presidential race. But the odds are long.
Get your supporters fired up and get them out to the polls. Every vote counts!
Creating an Online Campaign Strategy Template
For many political candidates, creating a digital campaign strategy can be difficult. Just as you need a plan to attract volunteers and deliver signs, you’ll need to put together a marketing strategy for your online presence.
These strategies are important when running a local political campaign.
It starts with a name
One of the first things to do in putting together a digital campaign strategy is to choose your primary handle. This should be a standard name that you use for all your online activity. This usually includes candidate’s name combined with ‘vote’ or ‘elect’ or the position that is sought.
For example, you may decide to go with something like ‘smithformayor’. You would use this handle for your website domain name (i.e. smithformayor.com). You would also use smithformayor (or Smith for Mayor) as the name for your social media accounts. This helps build a consistent online brand for your campaign.
If you plan to have a long-term career in politics, you may want to use a more generic ‘vote’ or ‘elect’ in the handle. That way, you can reuse your website and social media profiles in future elections.
Tip: Make sure the your chosen handle is not already in use. And don’t print offline materials with a website domain before you have a site in place. We’ve seen campaigns mess up print brochures because the domain name they listed was already taken when they finally went to register it.
The hub of your online campaign
A well-designed campaign website instills trust and confidence. It can make your organization appear larger than it really is. A website gives you a head start in building up social media followers, email subscribers, volunteers – and even donors if you begin early enough.
You will want to plan out your initial content early. It will make putting your site together a lot easier.
A campaign website generally includes these pages:
- Home Page
- About the Candidate
- Issue Pages
- Donation Page
- Endorsements
- Voter Information
- Contact Page
- Disclaimers (privacy and terms of use)
Putting content together early can help you focus on why you are running and what you hope to accomplish.
Many candidates find the writing process to be difficult. Online Candidate provides sample text and copy on our client resource site. We also have website worksheets when clients order to help make the process easier.
Using social media for outreach and support
Building an online network before you launch your political campaign gives you a leg up when you announce your intention to run. Friends and fans will be the first to check out your campaign website and help your fundraising and volunteer efforts.
When creating a social media strategy for your political campaign, stake your claim early. The primary social media platforms for smaller campaigns are Facebook and Twitter.
Of the two, Facebook is your best bet for its ability to target specific user demographics. Twitter is does not have the same advertising reach.
Start using a social media platform ONLY if you are willing to commit to maintaining it. It’s better to avoid using a platform than to create an account on one and let it grow stagnant.
Develop a content strategy for your social media. Plan ahead of time some general content that your campaign will post. This would include pre-planned event announcements, endorsements, election countdowns, etc. Other content will be produced throughout the election. Part of your social media activities will be responding to current news, your opposition’s activities and other events.
Consider your online fundraising options
An online political campaign strategy is not complete without a means for online fundraising. A campaign for local office can easily cost a few thousand dollars. In large city or state-wide elections, the costs may reach millions. If you want an idea of the potential cost of your election, research previous races for the same office.
Starting a political campaign can be tough. You will need initial seed money along with a campaign bank account. These days, people expect candidates and organizations to accept online donations. A number of services process political transactions online. Many have tools that go beyond simple transaction processing and bank transfers. They may allow you to take donations directly through your Facebook page, provide landing page creation and let you track multiple fundraising channels.
Crowdfunding is similar to traditional fundraising, but with a twist; it is a process where individuals pool money and other resources online to fund projects. It can help candidates who cannot afford to self-fund their own campaign.
What paid advertising channels will you use?
You are going to want to budget some money for online marketing and advertising. You may want to start with Facebook ads and Google Adwords early in the campaign to help build awareness.
Later in the campaign, you may want to increase your spend and expand into Facebook advertising for targeted posts and retargeting to build additional awareness.
- Social Media Advertising, Facebook in particular
- Google Adwords, though there are many restrictions these days.
- Retargeting services.
- IP Targeting to reach specific voter households
For campaigns with limited budgets, make sure that you have enough money in reserve to make a final advertising push. Turnout is critical, especially in local elections.
Campaign email is still a powerful tool
In this case, we’re not talking about email accounts, but how you will use your email list to maintain contact with your subscribers. If you plan to send emails to a large number of subscribers, it is essential to use an email marketing service. The use of an email service will help ensure that your messages are delivered and provide important tracking and automation tools.
A few of the more popular email vendors include, but are not limited to:
- AWeber.com (we use this service)
- MailChimp.com (has a free version)
Autoresponders are designed to get your message to the same audience repeatedly. Most autoresponder sequences are seven or so messages – based on the old seven-message marketing rule. You’ll want to lay out a template ahead of time for what those messages will be and the timetable for which they will be sent.
Email is one of the most important tools for online fundraising. The more subscribers you attract, the better.
Monitor your campaign’s online reputation
How do you plan to monitor your campaign and your opponent’s campaign? It is important to keep up with what people are saying about you online. Several people should be monitoring your social media campaigns and keeping up with online mentions about the candidate and campaign.
Start with Google Alerts and free sites like SocialMention.com. Consider investing in paid solutions like SproutSocial.
Put together a Get Out The Vote (GOTV) plan
As Election Day nears, you will need to pull out all the stops. Everything gets pushed, including your online advertising, social media updates, fundraising pushes and email updates. Plan your GOTV strategy early. Don’t wait until the last minute.
Have your campaign ads ready and the pitches already written. Remind supporters to vote the week before, the days before, the night before – and throughout Election Day. (A lot of people do not vote until the evening. ) Don’t quit pushing until the polls close!
Consider going outside the box
More sophisticated campaigns may use text messaging or even phone apps as a means of keeping in contact with supporters. Other campaigns may engage in video conferencing for online ‘Town Hall” meetings. Every political campaign has a different mix of resources and money.
Campaign plans can and do change, but it pays to have a good foundation at the start. Use the ideas here to put together a strategy for your digital side of your political campaign. You’ll have financial and resource limits that you will need to work within. It’s better to do what you can well than to try to do everything poorly.
Just as you have a campaign calendar for offline activities, you should also have a calendar for your online activities. Campaign events, fundraisers, GOTV efforts and such should all have online components planned out. Write them down and put together a schedule.
Whatever you do, just don’t wing it!
For more information on planning your online campaign strategy, check out Running for Office as an Online Candidate. Our exclusive guide provides a blueprint for local candidates who want to use the web to help win their election. It’s available in PDF, Kindle and print through Amazon.
Writing Content For Your Campaign Website – Examples
What should I write for my campaign website?
This is a question that often comes up when we get a new campaign website client. Sometimes the candidate has just started their campaign and has not prepared their content ahead of time.
The candidate may know why they are running, but has never had to put that reason to words. One way to distill a campaign to its essence is to break it down as if everything had to fit in a single brochure. This means creating effective subheaders, short sentences and bullet-point lists. The elements that make material readable for a brochure also makes it readable online.
Writing content for a home page or issue page generally comes down to :
- Why a candidate is running or how they see an issue(s).
- How they will address an issue(s) and perhaps why they are qualified to deal with the issue.
- Followed with a call to action of some type for each page. This includes ‘vote for’, ‘support’ and ‘donate’ requests.
Another way to inspire your creativity is to see what others running for a similar office have written. Obviously, you can’t just copy another candidate’s biography or platform. That’s unethical and, frankly, too easy to discover on the web. To create a political candidate profile, you’ll want to include information about your personal, professional and political life. Make your reasons for running for office personal and relatable to voters.
[bctt tweet=”When creating content for your campaign website, make your reasons for running for office personal and relatable to voters. via @onlinecandidate”]
To help create your initial website content, we’ve put together some sample text and copy on our client resource site. This material can be used for general political, judicial, sheriff and school board websites. There are several thousand words available for ideas to use as a template for your own content.
Of course, every campaign and candidate is different. The material is designed to provide a starting point for writing. It does require editing to make it unique and appropriate for your use.
We recently updated and expanded this sample content. We hope you find this helpful in writing out your campaign material.
Bonus tip: Writing in the third person on websites is better for search engine results. If you write in the first person, the search engines won’t know who “I” is – unless you use ‘pull quotes’ and a third-person call to action to incorporate your name into the copy.
Find sample website copy examples at OnlineCandidateResources.com!
Preparing Content For Your Campaign Website
Before your website is designed, you should plan out what content will go into the site. Website content consists of two things – text and images. If you have already created advertising material, that can provide a great starting point.
When writing your website copy, it’s a good idea to save the page separately or to combine them into one file with each page content separated and marked off.
These are the main pages that will require content:
- Home Page Text: The home page text should change often, but to start, you may want to create a ‘letter to voters’ announcing your campaign, why you are running and what you hope to accomplish if you win. In time, you can update this text to include new developments or to shift your focus from awareness to support-gathering.
- About the Candidate: Start off with some personal information, such as family, time lived in the area, hobbies, etc. Then take your resume and work it into a short biography. Keep it short and bullet-pointed, but don’t simply make it a list of your work history. Work a few words about what you did in those positions. Electing someone is more than just whether are qualified – voters need to like you, as well.
- Issues: This is the heart of your website content, and the most unique content you will create. Stake your positions against those of your opponent. Where necessary, break tissues into separate pages.
- Donations: Make sure this page has a strong call to action. You should prominently link to this page throughout the site.
- Endorsements: Include organizations and direct quotes, where possible. Endorsements can be added throughout your site, particularly where they are relevant to a particular issue.
- Voter Registration Information: This would include links to county or state voter resources.
Finally, work and rework your initial text to make your content as readable as possible .
Preparing images
- Include at least one good head shot for the home page. If running for office, you might want to use a flag as a backdrop.
- Include images of recognizable landmarks, particularly if your issues touch on those areas.
- Use photos from public or campaign events throughout your site. Where possible, try to include captions explaining the event.
- When using photos for endorsements, it’s a good idea to ask for permission first.
- Make sure your images are optimized for the web, so they load quickly and still look good.
- For both online and offline advertising, when sending images to a designer, larger, higher-resolution photos are best. The designer will be able to re size and cut down the size of the images. In other words, they can optimize a good-resolution image down, but they can’t make a poor resolution image look better.
Good photography and images can make a difference in how your website looks and how it is perceived by visitors.
Having your information written ahead of time will make your website creation go smoother. Nothing looks more unprofessional than pages that say ‘coming soon’. Well-written web content can often be incorporated into offline advertising to ensure a consistent message.
We recommend to our clients that they begin work on their website content as soon they can – even if they are not going to go ‘live’ with the site for some time. This provides time for editing so that when the site is launched, it is as effective as it can be.
Clients that need help coming up with content can use our website copy examples for help. Access is free for Online Candidate website clients.
Online Candidate makes it easy to launch your political website and build your online presence.
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