If campaign web sites had feelings, then on the morning after Election Day many would feel like a bride or groom left at the altar. Months of planning, buildup and being the center of attention ends abruptly in a frozen lonely stare.

After all of that work for their candidate, recruiting volunteers, raising money, building a community of supporters, and spreading campaign news, a very large number of campaign web sites freeze on Election Day. And that is a big mistake, for the winners and losers alike.

My own experience has been that the morning after Election Day is, not surprisingly, often one of the most heavily trafficked days on a campaign’s web site. Not everyone stays up all night watching election results on TV, or continuously re-loads early results from the web. Many will instead, wait until morning and turn first to the web sites of the candidates they supported, the sites on which they have hopefully become regulars and to which they now look for some update on the outcome of their efforts. It is a sign of success that a candidate’s supporters look to the campaign web site for information, and a terrible failure to let them down when they’ve come looking for the biggest news you have to offer… Did we win or lose??!!

But most campaigns will let them down. On Wednesday morning these supporters will be lucky if they see an Election Day message encouraging them to get out and vote, or a link to help them find local polling places. They are unlikely to learn the election’s result, or to receive a word of thanks.

This week’s election has provided an opportunity to hunt for campaigns with web sites that don’t still think it’s Tuesday. A colleague and I visited 60 sites, including each candidate in the Kentucky and Mississippi Governor’s races, and all of the top Virginia House and Senate races. Between 9 and 10 am, only two out of these 60 sites (a pitiful three percent) had any post election content to offer.. Another look at all 60 sites between 3 and 4 pm on Wednesday, and the number with post election content had only grown to five. Surely we can do better than this.

It may be understandable that the winners are still happily celebrating (or soundly sleeping off their victory celebration), and that the losers see no point in updating their sites at this point. And though the campaigning may stop when the polls close on Tuesday night, a campaign’s web site continues to serve a purpose. Win or lose, your web site should tell the end of the story, with a thankful victory speech, or a gracious concession. For the winners who will find themselves seeking re-election before they know it, and the losers who hope to try again in another run for office, each would do well to maintain their online presence. But at a minimum, tell the end of the story. Don’t leave your bride at the altar. On the morning after, end the story with, “and they served happily ever after”.

Here are some suggestions to think about now, and to keep in mind for Wednesday, November 8, 2008.

• Link to results: If you aren’t going to be able to update your campaign site on Election Night or the following morning, you should at least provide a link to a site that does provide results; preferably an Election Board or Secretary of State’s results page. Media sites also provide a good source for election results.

• Have your speech ready to post: In any race that is known to be close, a smart candidate will approach their Election Night party with both a victory and a concession speech ready to use. Even if the balloons aren’t dropping in your ballroom, your online supporters who aren’t with you deserve to learn what happened on your web site.

• Share some photos: Certainly there are people at your party with a camera. Ask for some of their photos, there on the spot, and share them on your web site.

• Send a day-after email: It’s understandable that you may feel like you’ve already sent too many emails to your supporters, but the morning after offers an opportunity to send one more, and this time one without asking for money, support or votes. Instead, this time, you can report the outcome, and just say ‘thank-you’.

Chris Casey is Director of Online Campaigns for NGP Software.