Twitter Revives Election Labels and Expands Verification for 2020 Candidates
Twitter reintroduces its Election Labels for the 2020 U.S. elections to help users identify political candidates and the offices they seek. The platform also expands verification to include primary candidates alongside general election contenders.
Twitter brings back its Election Labels ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections to help users easily identify political candidates. These labels display the specific office a candidate seeks, along with their state and district number, accompanied by a small ballot box icon. The feature previously sees massive engagement during the 2018 midterms, appearing in 13% of election-related conversations and reaching 100 million daily views in the week before Election Day.
The labels apply to accounts of individuals running for the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, or Governor who qualify for the general election ballot. Twitter partners again with the civic nonprofit Ballotpedia to accurately identify these qualified candidates. The labels begin appearing on a rolling basis as different states hold their caucuses and elections, starting on March 3, and show up on the candidate's profile as well as every tweet and retweet they post.
In a change from its 2018 policy, Twitter now proactively verifies the campaign accounts of candidates who qualify for primary elections, rather than waiting until they reach the general election. This standard verification checkmark matches what celebrities and other public figures receive. Ballotpedia again assists Twitter in identifying these primary candidates, with verifications starting immediately and continuing on a rolling basis as state filing deadlines occur.