How a grade is made

  1. We chose the votes that matter for women and families, and wrote down the rules, before we scored anyone.
  2. We only count votes where every member’s name is on the official record.
  3. A missed vote never counts as a no.
  4. We show who gives each member money, but money never changes a grade.

Rules first

We chose the eight subjects, and how much each one counts, and saved them before we scored anyone. A vote can only count if it fits a rule we already approved. Our system refuses to run otherwise.

Official records

How each member voted comes from VoteView, a public database of every recorded vote in Congress. Every link points to the official record: senate.gov for the Senate, clerk.house.gov for the House. We checked each vote against the official count before it could affect anyone’s grade.

A missed vote is not a no

We only count yes and no. If a member was absent, did not vote, or voted “present,” that vote is left out. Missing a vote never counts against anyone.

Nothing is added by itself

When a new vote looks like it fits one of our rules, a person checks it first. Nothing is added to a grade automatically.

Money is shown, not graded

We track who gives money to each member, from public election filings. It never changes a grade. Getting money from someone is not a vote.

We show our gaps

We list the subjects with no votes yet, the members with too few votes, and the votes still waiting to be checked. We do not hide them.