How a grade is made

Rubric first

The eight dimensions and their weights were approved and written to the database before any member was scored. A vote can only count if it maps to an already-approved measure — the loader refuses to run otherwise.

Official sources

Positions come from VoteView; every citation points at the primary record — senate.gov for the Senate, clerk.house.gov for the House. Each mapping was checked against the Clerk's own tally before it was allowed to score anyone.

A missed vote is not a no

Only Yea and Nay are scored. Present, not voting and absent are recorded and excluded — a missed vote is never counted as opposition.

Nothing is auto-added

New roll calls that merely resemble an approved measure are queued for a human, never scored automatically. The whole point is that the rubric existed first.

Money is context, not conduct

Who funds a member is tracked separately, from FEC bulk filings, and carries zero weight in the grade. Being funded by someone is not itself an act.

The gaps are published

Dimensions with no mapped vote, members with no record, and measures still awaiting review are all listed rather than hidden.