Voting Records
"Accountability begins with knowing how they vote"
Some incumbent legislators refuse to fill out questionnaires. They say, "I stand on my record," meaning their voting record. Unfortunately, that attitude greatly shortchanges voters, since most don't know what his or her voting record is, and have no clue how to access it -- much less having the time to do the research.
However, there are organizations -- such as the National Federation of Independent Business/Virginia (NFIB) (small business issues), GOA & NRA (2nd Amendment issues), AFL-CIO (labor union issues), and others -- that do track legislators' voting records on their issues -- if you know where to look.
While some voters may not be interested in, say, professional realtor issues, almost all voters are interested in issues that impact their family. Fortunately, there is an organization in Virginia that tracks and publishes the voting record of legislators on family-impact issues -- The Family Foundation.
As a service to voters, VirginiaVotes.net is pleased to provide a link to the results of their research.
Voting record link:
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Click here to see your Delegate and State Senator's numerical rank (100 to 0) relative to their peers, based on their voting record. (1 page of the 8-page 2003 General Assembly Report Card.) (Adobe .pdf format.)
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Click here to view the whole 2003 General Assembly Report Card at The Family Foundation's website. (Note: Slow loading for dial-up connections (pdf).)
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The Family Foundation's comprehensive and very popular General Assembly Report Card is essentially a "legislator accountability tool" for voters. The Report Card compares and rates all 100 delegates and 40 senators on a range of family-impact issues. The Report Card allows voters to see their Delegate and Senator's voting patterns and compare their performance with other legislators. It is the only practical tool we know of that lets you see fairly well whether or not your two legislators are representing your views on public policy issues.
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To obtain your own copy (or bulk copies) of TFF's General Assembly Report Card, contact The Family Foundation at 804-343-0010, or click here to send an Email request. Copies of the 8-page report are 25 cents, plus postage.
Send us a link...
- ... to your favorite organization's online report of how legislators voted on that organization's issues, and we'll post it here -- in keeping with our goal of a more informed electorate.
Updated 10-2-03.
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