Template talk:Election FPTP begin

This is a modified version of Template:Election box begin. It is a test that I will try on the British Columbia provincial elections. These are first-past-the-post elections, so understanding the campaign expenditures is a prerequiste to understanding the voting results. I do not see the point of the +-% column (it makes usually deceiving assumptions about the race, ie. voting for candidate or party) but it seems to be an accepted standard now so it remained.

Inflow vs Outflow

I consider the expenditures to be more important than the fundraising relative to the voting results. So, I list the expenditures.

Source of funding

The source of funding can also be really useful in analysing voting results, ie. corporations or unions. However, I believe this would make the table too burdonsome.

Adjustment of template for preferential ballot

I'm doing the historical riding pages for British Columbia provincial electoral districts; On all those so far done the 1952 and 1953 are listed in plaintext without boxes (WAC Bennett took advantage of the system to get elected, then junked it once he had a majority; in 1956 we were back to FPTP). I think I understand the Template creation parameters and had a look around the Template:Election data Talk page; but no STV or Pref tables available. Should I just create one or is there someone assigned to do this kind of thing? Table will need first count and last count (all that's given on Elections BC site, whether it's three counts or five or six counts); just a question of another couple of columns and appropriate headers.Skookum1 06:26, 2 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

These templates are difficult to design. I do not know if there is a guide to them. If you find one let me know. I found the best way to design one is to first design what you want on paper. Then find an existing template that is similar and copy&paste that to a new template page where you can experiment. Just trial-and-error. Try browsing the code of existing templates for specific features you want. Copy&paste it to your template and see if it works. --maclean25 07:25, 2 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]