It is as important as ever to know exactly for whom we’re voting. Are our representatives following through on their campaign promises or are they letting their positions sway to the whims of wealth and lobbying? And are candidates for office being honest to their positions in the past or are they jumping on their fellow nominees’ bandwagons? The average voter doesn’t have time to wade through the voting records of every prospective representative or presidential candidate, let alone the poli sci education needed to understand the bills on which they vote and what their vote means.
Know Their Vote is a comprehensive home base for every politically active young person. Pulling from government websites, Know Their Vote compiles voting data on every bill that passes through the senate and house. Not only displaying the data clearly and concisely, the site also calculates each vote’s comparative place on the political spectrum. For example, a bill that passes with a 70 point margin would be relatively bipartisan, making a vote against it much more radical than a vote in favor. This reveals how progressive or conservative their vote is on an issue, and shows which representatives tend to vote along party lines and which ones stray towards actual change.
Users can create a free account to track specific representatives and stay on top of bills that are active on the floor. With just a few clicks, account holders are able to see the upcoming week in legislature, learn about active bills, and find links to government websites with even more information. They can also see the latest votes of their representatives or any representative they choose to track. And around election time, the homepage becomes the first stop for users to see who is up for reelection. Most importantly, the site does not mine user data. Users’ political affiliations and interests are kept private and never requested, making this service 100% bipartisan and bias free.
