So we said it’s all about elections. So what happens after someone wins?
Ever wonder what actually goes on at the State House –- or how your elected representatives vote on the issues you care about?
Unfortunately, much of what actually goes on is rather opaque. Each legislative session, thousands of bills are filed and assigned to a committee. But, many never have a hearing. And, committee meetings are not open to the public –- nor are committee votes recorded.
And even when a bill is not relegated to “study” –- where bills go to die -– they may never receive an up or down vote. Leadership plays the key role in determining which legislation actually moves forward — and which dies by running out the clock.
And bills that do come up for a vote? The vast majority are voice-voted, which means there is no roll call –- no actual record of where your particular elected official stood.
From time to time, a roll call vote is requested an elected official and leadership accedes. But most of the time, legislators say they are under tremendous pressure not to “buck leadership” and their colleagues in making such demands. And – roll call votes are not organized in a convenient or easily accessible way.
Let’s say you learned that a roll call vote had been taken on an issue of importance to you. How would you know how your elected official had voted?
Many online news services like Beacon Hill Roll Call report the votes from a given week –- but they don’t archive these so if you miss the vote you’re interested in, you’re out of luck.
Or, suppose someone from a neighboring district is now running for higher office and you want to know how they voted? Well, the process of finding out is so complicated – involving several different sources in malegislature.gov that your head would spin just hearing about it
Progressive Massachusetts believes that government functions best and residents have the highest possible confidence in their representatives when the work of the legislature is fully transparent -– and easily accessible to the public.
And that is why, today, we are publishing a record of key roll call votes taken in the last legislative session (2011-2012). And we will be tracking, compiling and publishing future roll call votes this legislative session.
Check out how your representative -– or any other representative, for that matter, actually voted:
- 2011-2012 House Roll Call
- 2011-2012 Senate Roll Call
Make your own judgment about how progressive you think they are. Maybe this will help you decide about the 1st Suffolk State Senate race or between all those elected officials who say they are running for Ed Markey’s seat when he wins.
scout says
This is great. The only thing that would make it better is if you published all the votes.
Progressive Massachusetts says
Scout,
Thanks for the feedback. There were over 300 roll call votes in each chamber, and many of them had no clear progressive position. But you do raise a good point. It should be much easier than it is for anyone to easily look up the roll call votes. Currently the process is, you have to know what you are looking for, be able to sort through a bunch of Beacon Hill-ese and then you get a PDF of the one vote you are looking for (or you can pay thousands of dollars a year for a service to do it for you). We were astounded at the amount of work it took us to just get this relatively small number of votes, the legislature can surely do better at helping the voters get a clearer picture of what they are doing.
petr says
I’ve long been a big fan of Thomas, and have, likewise, long wanted something like it at the CommonWealth level.
That we don’t have this in place just underscores the shame of the current legislature in the CommonWealth. Troglodytes all…
ward3dem says
Some of the information is not accurate:
“…many (bills) never have a hearing…” That is not accurate, undr joint rules, every bill has a hearing and that is the practice of every committee.
“….committee meetings are not open to the public…” Committee hearings in which bills are heard are open to the public and people may sign up and testify on bills they choose. Executive Sessions which may follow a committee haering are also open but the public may not testify.
And, committee meetings are not open to the public
harmonywho says
The failure of vision and leadership from, well, “Leadership” today is disappointing. I hope that rank and file legislators will recognize that they have an opportunity to stand up for responsible revenue package and investment in Massachusetts’s future.
And if they don’t, I want it scorecarded.