diff --git a/docs/README.md b/docs/README.md
index e69de29..ea9021b 100644
--- a/docs/README.md
+++ b/docs/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# Documentation
+
+Primary elekto documentation is in [the Elekto Docs repo](https://github.com/elekto-io/docs) and not here.  This directory contains some design documents from the early work on Elekto.
diff --git a/elekto/models/meta.py b/elekto/models/meta.py
index 442f80c..ae2c85a 100644
--- a/elekto/models/meta.py
+++ b/elekto/models/meta.py
@@ -63,6 +63,8 @@ def __init__(self, key):
 
         if not os.path.exists(self.path):
             F.abort(404)
+        else:
+            self.build()
 
     @staticmethod
     def all():
@@ -133,6 +135,9 @@ def results(self):
 
     def voters(self):
         return utils.parse_yaml(os.path.join(self.path, Election.VOT))
+        
+    def showfields(self):
+        return dict.fromkeys(self.election['show_candidate_fields'], '')
 
     def candidates(self):
         """
@@ -164,5 +169,11 @@ def candidate(self, cid):
         candidate['key'] = cid
         candidate['description'] = utils.parse_md(
             utils.extract_candidate_description(md), False)
-
+        # return only the candidate optional fields that are listed in show_candidate_fields
+        # unfilled fields are returned as '' so the label still displays
+        candidate['fields'] = self.showfields()
+        for info in candidate['info']:
+            field = list(info.keys())[0]
+            if field in candidate['fields']:
+                candidate['fields'][field] = info[field]
         return candidate
diff --git a/elekto/templates/views/elections/candidate.html b/elekto/templates/views/elections/candidate.html
index 2237160..f2763db 100644
--- a/elekto/templates/views/elections/candidate.html
+++ b/elekto/templates/views/elections/candidate.html
@@ -21,6 +21,11 @@ <h1 class="banner-title space-lr">
         <p class="banner-subtitle space-lr">
             <small class="badge badge-green" style="text-transform: none;">{{ candidate['ID'] }}</small> | <span>Running for {{ election['name'] }}</span>
         </p>
+        {% for fieldname, info in candidate['fields'].items() %}
+        <p class="banner-subtitle space-lr">
+            <small class="badge badge-green" style="text-transform: none;">{{ fieldname }}</small> | <span>{{ info }}</span>
+        </p>
+        {% endfor %}
     </div>
     <div class="space--md  pb-1rem">
         <div class="description space-lr">