Through a grant from the Hatton Sumners Foundation and contributions from members and volunteers, Project Vote Smart has redesigned the Key Votes component of our Voter's Self-Defense System.
Since January 2006 our Key Votes department has tracked not only U.S. Congress, but state legislatures as well.
The Key Votes Program follows Project Vote Smart's strict policies, procedures and structure that guarantee absolute impartiality and accuracy. In order to ensure that all Key Votes are non-partisan in their selection and language, each is approved by a group of over 150 political scientists and journalists from all fifty states, before being posted to our website.
For more information about Key Votes, please call our Voter's Research Hotline at 1-888-VOTE-SMART (1-888-868-3762).
Yea Nay Not Voting, Excused, Absent, or Present Pair Yea Pair Nay
Selection and Descriptions of Key Votes Program
Project Vote Smart provides easy access to Congressional and State
voting records and maintains a collection of key votes grouped by
issue. Key votes typically include the initial passage of legislation
and final conference report votes versions (the compromised versions
of bills passed in separate House and Senate version). PVS uses a
criteria to select key votes:
1. The vote should be helpful in portraying how a member stands on a particular issue 2. The vote should be clear for any person to understand 3. The vote has received media attention 4. The vote was passed or defeated by a very close margin 5. Occasionally, a specific bill is consistently inquired about on the PVS Hotline; the vote is added to the web site
Descriptions of the votes are written by PVS staff and based on
information included in the Congressional Record and or State House
and Senate Journals, with additional background information from
newspapers, magazines, etc. PVS provides summaries for each selected
key vote. The summary does not necessarily reflect the final version
of the bill.
Key votes selected by PVS staff go through an approval process before
web site posting, with political scientists and journalists of
opposing viewpoints reviewing both the selection and the content.
This is to ensure clarity, relevance, nonpartisanship and accuracy.
After the approval process is completed, the votes are ready to go
into the database and subsequently on-line.
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