diff --git a/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/BaseCvrReader.java b/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/BaseCvrReader.java
index 3dd461e8..8e8f82b3 100644
--- a/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/BaseCvrReader.java
+++ b/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/BaseCvrReader.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Set;
 import javafx.util.Pair;
 import network.brightspots.rcv.RawContestConfig.Candidate;
 import network.brightspots.rcv.RawContestConfig.CvrSource;
@@ -64,24 +65,19 @@ public void runAdditionalValidations(List<CastVoteRecord> castVoteRecords)
   }
 
   // Some CVRs have a list of candidates in the file. Read that list and return it.
-  // This will be used in tandem with gatherUnknownCandidates, which only looks for candidates
+  // This will be used in tandem with gatherUnknownCandidateCounts, which only looks for candidates
   // that have at least one vote.
   public List<String> readCandidateListFromCvr(List<CastVoteRecord> castVoteRecords)
       throws IOException {
     return new ArrayList<>();
   }
 
-  // Allow any reader-specific postprocessing of the candidate list.
-  public Candidate postprocessAutoloadedCandidate(Candidate candidate) {
-    return candidate;
-  }
-
   // Gather candidate names from the CVR that are not in the config.
-  Map<String, Integer> gatherUnknownCandidates(
+  public Map<Candidate, Integer> gatherUnknownCandidateCounts(
       List<CastVoteRecord> castVoteRecords, boolean includeCandidatesWithZeroVotes) {
     // First pass: gather all unrecognized candidates and their counts
     // All CVR Readers have this implemented
-    Map<String, Integer> unrecognizedCandidateCounts = new HashMap<>();
+    Map<String, Integer> unrecognizedNameCounts = new HashMap<>();
     for (CastVoteRecord cvr : castVoteRecords) {
       for (Pair<Integer, CandidatesAtRanking> ranking : cvr.candidateRankings) {
         for (String candidateName : ranking.getValue()) {
@@ -91,7 +87,7 @@ Map<String, Integer> gatherUnknownCandidates(
             continue;
           }
 
-          unrecognizedCandidateCounts.merge(candidateName, 1, Integer::sum);
+          unrecognizedNameCounts.merge(candidateName, 1, Integer::sum);
         }
       }
     }
@@ -115,16 +111,28 @@ Map<String, Integer> gatherUnknownCandidates(
 
       // Combine the lists
       for (String candidateName : allCandidates) {
-        if (!unrecognizedCandidateCounts.containsKey(candidateName)
+        if (!unrecognizedNameCounts.containsKey(candidateName)
             && config.getNameForCandidate(candidateName) == null) {
-          unrecognizedCandidateCounts.put(candidateName, 0);
+          unrecognizedNameCounts.put(candidateName, 0);
         }
       }
     }
 
+    Map<Candidate, Integer> unrecognizedCandidateCounts = new HashMap<>();
+    for (Map.Entry<String, Integer> entry : unrecognizedNameCounts.entrySet()) {
+      String candidateName = entry.getKey();
+      int count = entry.getValue();
+      Candidate candidate = new Candidate(candidateName, null, false);
+      unrecognizedCandidateCounts.put(candidate, count);
+    }
+
     return unrecognizedCandidateCounts;
   }
 
+  Set<Candidate> gatherUnknownCandidates(List<CastVoteRecord> castVoteRecords) {
+    return gatherUnknownCandidateCounts(castVoteRecords, true).keySet();
+  }
+
   boolean usesLastAllowedRanking(List<Pair<Integer, String>> rankings, String contestId) {
     if (rankings.isEmpty()) {
       return false;
diff --git a/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/DominionCvrReader.java b/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/DominionCvrReader.java
index 5077a5ae..8f9f3381 100644
--- a/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/DominionCvrReader.java
+++ b/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/DominionCvrReader.java
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ private static Map<Integer, String> getPrecinctData(String precinctPath) {
   }
 
   // returns a map of Codes to Candidate objects parsed from CandidateManifest.json
-  private static HashMap<String, Candidate> getCandidates(String candidatePath) {
+  private HashMap<String, Candidate> getCandidates(String candidatePath) {
     HashMap<String, Candidate> candidates = new HashMap<>();
     try {
       HashMap json = JsonParser.readFromFile(candidatePath, HashMap.class);
@@ -112,6 +112,9 @@ private static HashMap<String, Candidate> getCandidates(String candidatePath) {
         Integer id = (Integer) candidateMap.get("Id");
         String code = id.toString();
         String contestId = candidateMap.get("ContestId").toString();
+        if (contestId.equals(config.getContestName())) {
+          continue;
+        }
         Candidate newCandidate = new Candidate(name, code, contestId);
         candidates.put(code, newCandidate);
       }
@@ -228,20 +231,23 @@ private void validateNamesAreInContest(List<CastVoteRecord> castVoteRecords)
 
   // The Candidate Autoload looks only at the CVR file(s) and not the manifest files, so
   // it doesn't know about the mapping between a code and the candidate's name. This function
-  // addresses that discrepancy.
-  public RawContestConfig.Candidate postprocessAutoloadedCandidate(
-          RawContestConfig.Candidate autoloadedCandidate) {
-    String autoloadedCandidateName = autoloadedCandidate.getName();
-    Candidate candidateFromManifest = candidates.get(autoloadedCandidateName);
-    RawContestConfig.Candidate fixedCandidate;
-    if (candidateFromManifest == null) {
-      fixedCandidate = autoloadedCandidate;
-    } else {
-      fixedCandidate = new RawContestConfig.Candidate(
-              candidateFromManifest.name, candidateFromManifest.code, false);
+  // addresses that discrepancy, while also being much faster than actually reading each ballot.
+  @Override
+  public Set<RawContestConfig.Candidate> gatherUnknownCandidates(
+          List<CastVoteRecord> castVoteRecords) {
+    Set<String> knownNames = config.getCandidateNames();
+    Set<Map.Entry<String, Candidate>> namesFoundInManifest = candidates.entrySet();
+
+    Set<RawContestConfig.Candidate> unknownCandidates = new HashSet<>();
+    for (Map.Entry<String, Candidate> entry : namesFoundInManifest) {
+      Candidate candidate = entry.getValue();
+      if (knownNames.contains(candidate.name)) {
+        continue;
+      }
+      unknownCandidates.add(new RawContestConfig.Candidate(candidate.name, entry.getKey(), false));
     }
 
-    return fixedCandidate;
+    return unknownCandidates;
   }
 
   // parse the CVR file or files into a List of CastVoteRecords for tabulation
diff --git a/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/GuiConfigController.java b/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/GuiConfigController.java
index 6deae577..26e914de 100644
--- a/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/GuiConfigController.java
+++ b/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/GuiConfigController.java
@@ -38,10 +38,8 @@
 import java.time.format.DateTimeParseException;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
-import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.List;
-import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Objects;
 import java.util.Optional;
 import java.util.ResourceBundle;
@@ -1722,20 +1720,16 @@ protected Void call() {
               }
               if (cvrsSpecified) {
                 // Gather unloaded names from each of the sources and place into the HashSet
-                HashMap<String, Candidate> unloadedNames = new HashMap<>();
+                HashSet<Candidate> unloadedCandidates = new HashSet<>();
                 for (CvrSource source : sources) {
                   Provider provider = ContestConfig.getProvider(source);
                   try {
                     List<CastVoteRecord> castVoteRecords = new ArrayList<>();
                     BaseCvrReader reader = provider.constructReader(config, source);
                     reader.readCastVoteRecords(castVoteRecords);
-                    Set<String> unknownCandidates = reader.gatherUnknownCandidates(
-                        castVoteRecords, true).keySet();
-                    for (String name : unknownCandidates) {
-                      Candidate candidate = new Candidate(name, null, false);
-                      candidate = reader.postprocessAutoloadedCandidate(candidate);
-                      unloadedNames.put(candidate.getName(), candidate);
-                    }
+                    Set<Candidate> unknownCandidates =
+                            reader.gatherUnknownCandidates(castVoteRecords);
+                    unloadedCandidates.addAll(unknownCandidates);
                   } catch (ContestConfig.UnrecognizedProviderException e) {
                     Logger.severe(
                         "Unrecognized provider \"%s\" in source file \"%s\": %s",
@@ -1749,14 +1743,14 @@ protected Void call() {
 
                 // Validate each name and add to the table of candidates
                 int successCount = 0;
-                for (Map.Entry<String, Candidate> entry : unloadedNames.entrySet()) {
+                for (Candidate candidate : unloadedCandidates) {
                   Set<ValidationError> validationErrors =
-                      ContestConfig.performBasicCandidateValidation(entry.getValue());
+                      ContestConfig.performBasicCandidateValidation(candidate);
                   if (validationErrors.isEmpty()) {
-                    tableViewCandidates.getItems().add(entry.getValue());
+                    tableViewCandidates.getItems().add(candidate);
                     successCount++;
                   } else {
-                    Logger.severe("Failed to load candidate \"%s\"!", entry.getKey());
+                    Logger.severe("Failed to load candidate \"%s\"!", candidate.getName());
                   }
                 }
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/TabulatorSession.java b/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/TabulatorSession.java
index 86bd362f..7b262ffd 100644
--- a/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/TabulatorSession.java
+++ b/src/main/java/network/brightspots/rcv/TabulatorSession.java
@@ -357,8 +357,8 @@ private LoadedCvrData parseCastVoteRecords(
                 source, reader, sourceIndex, startIndex, castVoteRecords.size() - 1));
 
         // Check for unrecognized candidates
-        Map<String, Integer> unrecognizedCandidateCounts =
-            reader.gatherUnknownCandidates(castVoteRecords, false);
+        Map<RawContestConfig.Candidate, Integer> unrecognizedCandidateCounts =
+            reader.gatherUnknownCandidateCounts(castVoteRecords, false);
 
         if (!unrecognizedCandidateCounts.isEmpty()) {
           throw new UnrecognizedCandidatesException(unrecognizedCandidateCounts);
@@ -440,9 +440,9 @@ private LoadedCvrData parseCastVoteRecords(
   static class UnrecognizedCandidatesException extends Exception {
 
     // count of how many times each unrecognized candidate was encountered during CVR parsing
-    final Map<String, Integer> candidateCounts;
+    final Map<RawContestConfig.Candidate, Integer> candidateCounts;
 
-    UnrecognizedCandidatesException(Map<String, Integer> candidateCounts) {
+    UnrecognizedCandidatesException(Map<RawContestConfig.Candidate, Integer> candidateCounts) {
       this.candidateCounts = candidateCounts;
     }
   }