Candidate Website Checklist: What Every Local Candidate Website Needs

A candidate website has one job: answer a voter's basic questions about you in under a minute, on a phone, without making them hunt. That means who you are, what office you want, when the election is, where you stand and how to reach you.

Quick answer: Every local candidate website needs a short bio with a real photo, the office and what it does, the election date with links to official voting information, issue positions in plain language, endorsements, upcoming events, a volunteer and contact form, and a "Paid for by" line. It must load fast on a phone and stay current.

Why a candidate website gets about a minute

Think about how a voter actually finds you. Someone mentions your name in the town Facebook group, or they notice your yard sign at the corner by the elementary school. They pull out a phone and type your name.

Whatever comes up first is your first impression. That voter is standing in a kitchen or sitting in a parked car, not settling in to study your plan for the sewer district. They give it a minute. Maybe less.

If your candidate website tells them who you are, what you want to do and why you are asking for the job, you have done more than a lot of people on the ballot manage. If it makes them scroll past a mission statement to find the election date, they close the tab and move on.

We have been building sites for local races since 2011. The checklist below is what goes on every one of them. It is short on purpose.

Who you are: the bio, the photo and the reason

Start with a bio that sounds like a person wrote it. Two or three short paragraphs: where you live, how long you have been in town, what you do for work, and what you have done locally. Coached Little League. Sat on the library trustees. Ran the PTO auction. Local voters weigh that far more heavily than a list of degrees.

Use a real photo. Not a cropped picture from a cousin's wedding, and not a stock image of a flag. Get a clear, well-lit headshot plus one or two shots of you in town, at a door or outside the building you keep talking about. People should be able to recognize you at the candidate forum.

Then say why you are running, in one paragraph. Not a slogan. A reason. "I have two kids at the middle school and I sat through four budget hearings last spring" tells a voter more than "a fresh voice for our community" ever will. On a candidate website, that paragraph does most of the persuading.

The office, the date and how to vote

Plenty of voters could not tell you what a select board, a county commission or a school committee actually decides. Tell them in two or three sentences: what the office controls, how long the term runs and how many seats are open. It also keeps your issues tied to things the office can actually do.

Put the election date near the top of the home page and again in the footer. Then tell people how to vote, but send them to official sources for the details. Link to your town or county clerk and your state election office for registration deadlines, polling places, absentee ballots and early voting. Rules vary by state and sometimes by town, and you do not want your site to be where somebody picked up a wrong deadline. Link the sample ballot too, if the clerk posts one.

Issues, endorsements and events

Write your issues in plain language. Three to five topics is plenty for most local races. For each, say what the problem is and what you would do about it. Short paragraphs beat a twelve-page platform. Our guide to writing an issues page voters will actually read goes further on format.

Endorsements belong on the site the day you have them. A retired teacher, a former planning board member, the owner of the hardware store on Main Street. Get written permission, spell every name correctly and add a one-line quote when you can. Here is how we handle collecting and showing local endorsements so the list grows without turning into a wall of names.

Events need a page somebody actually maintains: the next coffee, the Saturday standout, the candidate forum at the library, the door knocking shift that leaves from your driveway at nine. Date, time, place and a way to RSVP. Archive each event the day after it happens.

If you would rather spend your evenings knocking doors than fixing an events page, that is the work we take off a candidate's plate. It takes about three minutes to tell us about your race, and a real person reads every one.

Contact, volunteers and the "Paid for by" line

Every page should have an obvious way to reach you. A short contact form, an email address on your campaign domain and a volunteer signup that asks only for what you need: name, email, phone, neighborhood and what they are willing to do. Hold a lawn sign, knock doors, drive a neighbor to the polls. A long form gets abandoned halfway.

Make sure signups land in a list you control, then follow up. A volunteer who never hears back rarely offers twice.

Voters will also send questions. Where do you stand on the new fire station? Would you support the override? A site that makes those easy to ask, and shows that you answer them, earns trust quickly. We wrote separately about answering voter questions on your site.

Finally, the disclaimer. Many states require political communications, often including websites, to say who paid for them. Wording and placement depend on your state, so confirm it with your state election office or a campaign attorney, then put the approved line in the footer. Our disclaimer basics for local races cover the habits that keep you out of trouble, and the campaign compliance page covers the rest.

Build the candidate website for a phone first

Assume most visitors arrive on a phone, often on a weak signal. Check every page on an older phone in the town hall parking lot, not on the big monitor at home.

Speed matters. Oversized photos and heavy page builders can make a simple candidate website crawl, and some people leave before it finishes loading. Compress images and skip the slideshow.

Accessibility matters too. Voters with low vision and people using screen readers all get a ballot. Use real text instead of pictures of text, add alt text to photos and keep contrast strong. The Justice Department publishes guidance on web accessibility under the ADA, and it is worth reading before launch, even for a small site.

Clear structure also makes your site easy for voters, search engines and AI assistants to find and understand. Use the same name everywhere, a page title that says who you are and what you are running for, and plain headings. When somebody asks about the candidates in your race, you want your own page to be the one that gets read. More on that under showing up in AI search answers.

What to leave off your candidate website

Some things cost you more than they earn:

• Long PDFs. A platform buried in a PDF is miserable to read on a phone. Put the words on the page.
• Attacks on opponents. Local races are small. You will see these people at the grocery store in December.
• National talking points with nothing to do with the office. A school board seat does not set trade policy.
• Autoplay video and pop-ups that cover the page before a voter even sees your name.
• Personal details you would not print on a flyer, like your home address or your kids' schedules.

Keeping a candidate website current, and the mistakes we see every cycle

A candidate website is not a brochure you print once and forget. Polling places move, endorsements arrive and the forum gets rescheduled because the library double-booked the community room. A site that still lists last month's coffee as "upcoming" tells voters nobody is minding the store.

Set a weekly routine. One person, fifteen minutes, every Monday: clear old events, add endorsements, update the voting section when absentee and early voting open, and test every form.

The common mistakes are not complicated. A platform-only site, a free page or social profile that looks temporary and can vanish after the election along with everyone who signed up. A dead events page; nothing says "this campaign stalled" like an August event on a site in October. A contact form that quietly sends to an inbox nobody checks. And missing basics: no election date, no office named, no photo. Voters who check candidates the way we describe in how voters research local candidates will move on to someone who answers them.

Want the checklist handled for you? We build, host and keep campaign sites current for local races, so every item above stays checked through Election Day. You knock doors and answer voters; we keep the page right. Start with the three-minute intake.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should be on the home page of a candidate website?

Your name, the office you are running for and the election date, all visible without scrolling. Below that, a real photo, a one-paragraph reason you are running, links to your issues and endorsements, the next event and a clear way to volunteer or get in touch. The "Paid for by" line goes in the footer of every page.

Do I really need a website to run for school board or select board?

Yes, if you want voters who do not already know you to take you seriously. A simple candidate website is the minimum. The first thing most people do after hearing a new name is search it. A simple, complete site gives them an answer you wrote, instead of an empty result or someone else with your name.

Does my campaign site need a "Paid for by" line?

In many places, yes. Disclaimer rules for local races are set by state law and sometimes local rules, so the required wording and placement vary. Check with your state election office or a campaign attorney, then put the approved line in the footer so it appears on every page automatically.

How often should I update my campaign site?

At least once a week during the campaign, and more often in the final two weeks. Remove past events, add endorsements as they arrive, and update the voting section when absentee and early voting open. Test your forms each week so no volunteer or voter question disappears into a dead inbox.

Can a social media page replace a candidate website?

You can, but it usually looks temporary and you do not control it. Posts get buried, voters without an account may not see everything, and the people who follow you are not on a list you own. Use social media to send people to your site, where the full story and the signup form live.