Home / Voting Record Analysis / Voting Record Analysis Specification
Voting Record Analysis
Overview
The Voting Record Analysis Specification defines a standardized, open-source framework for collecting, structuring, analyzing, and presenting legislative voting records for elected officials. The specification enables transparent tracking of voting activity, legislative participation, campaign promise comparisons, and historical voting patterns.
The system is designed to provide verifiable civic information by connecting official legislative records, campaign commitments, attendance data, committee activity, and sponsored legislation into a unified analysis framework.
Purpose
The purpose of this specification is to establish a common data model and processing framework for:
- Tracking complete voting histories of elected officials
- Comparing legislative votes against publicly stated campaign commitments
- Identifying potential inconsistencies between promises and voting actions
- Monitoring legislative participation and attendance
- Providing transparent access to legislative activity records
- Supporting civic education, journalism, research, and public accountability tools
Core Features
1. Complete Voting History
The system MUST support recording the complete voting history of a politician.
Each vote record SHOULD include:
- Official name
- Office held
- Legislative chamber
- Jurisdiction
- Session or legislative term
- Bill or resolution identifier
- Vote date
- Vote type
- Vote position:
- Yes
- No
- Abstained
- Present
- Excused
- Did Not Vote
- Official vote source
- Supporting documentation links
The system SHOULD preserve historical records without modification.
2. Campaign Promise Comparison
The system MUST support comparing legislative voting activity with documented campaign promises.
Campaign promise records SHOULD include:
- Promise statement
- Source type:
- Campaign website
- Speech
- Interview
- Debate
- Policy platform
- Public statement
- Publication date
- Source reference
- Issue category
- Related legislation
- Promise status
Promise comparison statuses:
- Supported by voting record
- Partially aligned
- Not aligned
- Contradictory
- Insufficient voting data
The system MUST provide source references for all comparisons.
3. Promise and Vote Contradiction Analysis
The system SHOULD identify differences between publicly stated positions and recorded legislative actions.
Contradiction analysis MAY include:
- Promise keywords
- Policy category matching
- Legislative vote comparison
- Timeline analysis
- Position changes
- Supporting or opposing votes
The system MUST clearly distinguish:
- Verified voting facts
- Documented statements
- Automated analysis
- Human interpretation
Automated analysis MUST NOT be presented as definitive intent.
4. Attendance Tracking
The system MUST support legislative attendance tracking.
Attendance records SHOULD include:
- Official name
- Legislative body
- Session period
- Meeting date
- Attendance status:
- Present
- Absent
- Excused
- Unknown
- Attendance source
The system SHOULD calculate:
- Total sessions
- Sessions attended
- Sessions missed
- Attendance percentage
- Attendance trends over time
5. Committee Participation Records
The system MUST support tracking committee involvement.
Committee records SHOULD include:
- Committee name
- Committee type
- Membership dates
- Role:
- Member
- Chair
- Ranking member
- Other position
- Hearings attended
- Committee votes
- Committee assignments
Historical committee assignments SHOULD be preserved.
6. Sponsored Bills and Co-Sponsored Legislation
The system MUST support tracking legislative sponsorship.
Bill sponsorship records SHOULD include:
- Bill identifier
- Bill title
- Sponsor name
- Co-sponsor list
- Date introduced
- Legislative category
- Current status
- Related committees
- Final outcome
The system SHOULD track:
- Number of sponsored bills
- Number of co-sponsored bills
- Legislative activity by category
- Bill progression history
7. Missed Vote Alerts
The system SHOULD provide notifications for missed legislative votes.
Alert conditions MAY include:
- Missed floor votes
- Repeated absences
- Important legislation missed
- Committee votes missed
Alerts SHOULD include:
- Date
- Legislative item
- Official record source
- Attendance status
- Historical comparison data
8. Cross-Party Voting History
The system MUST support analysis of voting patterns across party lines.
Cross-party voting records SHOULD include:
- Party affiliation at time of vote
- Vote outcome
- Party majority position
- Individual vote position
- Legislative category
The system MAY calculate:
- Cross-party voting frequency
- Bipartisan voting patterns
- Voting trends over time
Metrics MUST be transparent and include calculation methods.
Data Model
Politician Entity
Fields:
- Identifier
- Full name
- Office
- Jurisdiction
- Party affiliation
- Terms served
- Official sources
Vote Entity
Fields:
- Vote identifier
- Bill identifier
- Date
- Chamber
- Vote result
- Individual vote position
- Source reference
Promise Entity
Fields:
- Promise identifier
- Statement
- Source
- Date
- Category
- Related issue
Legislation Entity
Fields:
- Bill identifier
- Title
- Description
- Sponsor
- Co-sponsors
- Status
- Committees
Committee Entity
Fields:
- Committee identifier
- Name
- Members
- Assignments
- Meetings
API Requirements
Implementations SHOULD provide APIs for:
- Politician lookup
- Voting history retrieval
- Bill tracking
- Promise comparison
- Attendance queries
- Committee records
- Sponsorship records
API responses SHOULD support:
- JSON
- Structured metadata
- Source references
- Historical records
Specification Branding License (SBL)
Standard
- Fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant system
- Copyleft enforced for network deployments
- Required attribution:
- Roxanne Ardary
- https://www.roxanneardary.com/
Optional
- Specification Branding License (SBL)
- Attribution-free commercial deployment
- Pricing based on scale, usage, and deployment scope
- https://roxanneardary.com/voting-record-analysis/
License & Notice Requirements
Voting Record Analysis is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+). By contributing to any Open Arsenal project, you agree that your contributions will also be released under this license.
Please note the following:
- All contributions must comply with the AGPL-3.0+ terms.
- Under Section 7 of the license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works must preserve attribution to: Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.
- Voting Record Analysis specifications are free to use with attribution. A Specification Branding License can be negotiated upon request.
- The project’s notice.md file tracks attribution requirements and contributor acknowledgments. Any update that adds new contributors or modifies attribution should also update notice.md.
- When submitting a pull request, ensure that any new files maintain the attribution headers where applicable.
- Network-deployed versions of this software must also remain fully AGPL-3.0+ compliant, including exposure of source code modifications when applicable under the license.
For full legal details, please refer to the AGPL-3.0+ license and the project’s notice.md file.
Notice – ActionCheck
Attribution Requirement: Under Section 7 of the AGPL 3.0+ license, all redistributions, forks, and derivative works, including network-deployed versions of this project, must provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com.
Contributors
This file tracks contributors and their specific contributions to the project.
- Roxanne Ardary, roxanneardary.com – March 10, 2026
Created the repository for ActionCheck. Designed the platform to track politicians’ promises, votes, financial activity, and board memberships for public accountability. - [Add other contributors here] – [Date]
[Describe contribution in one sentence]
License
This repository is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later (AGPL-3.0+).
Key Points
- You are free to use, modify, and distribute the code.
- All redistributions, forks, and derivative works or network-deployed versions must also be licensed under AGPL-3.0+ and provide attribution to Roxanne Ardary and roxanneardary.com as required under Section 7 of the license.
- The software is provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind.
For the full license text, see GNU AGPL-3.0 License.