It’s an age-old question, and you’ll see many rankings, surveys, and analyses of a legislator’s actions. Unfortunately, most of these rankings inject the bias of the organization into the ranking.
Wouldn’t it be better if there was a way to figure out a legislator’s preferences without bias, more like a science experiment?
That’s where Evidence-base Wyoming comes in. Evidence-based Wyoming answers the question, “How does this legislator compare to the other legislators?” Its not a purity test on platform support or support for a specific issue. It shows how a legislator votes based solely on their voting record and their colleagues’ records in the House or Senate. EvidenceBasedWyoming.com is the only legislator analysis that takes uses every legislator recorded vote and compares it to every other legislator to find the truth about legislators.
Link: The 2020 Evidence Based Wyoming Rankings Flyer from the Wyoming Republican Convention
Regardless of the issue, for each legislator’s vote, Evidence-Based Wyoming, asks one question, “Did you vote with the majority of Democrats or Republicans?” Answers to that are tabulated for each legislator. With a little math, we can calculate if they vote more like the average Democrat or the average Republican.
The process, because it is based on the legislator’s own voting record, has no bias. It’s straightforward math, and that is the beauty of the process. Evidence-based Wyoming even explains how the math is done. If you’re inclined, you can repeat the process on your own and verify the results. It’s a science experiment.
As a benefit, we can ask and answer more questions: “How often does a legislator vote against their own party and win?”; or, “Based on the number of roll-call votes per session, how transparent is each house of the legislature?”
Better still, EvidenceBasedWyoming.com gives you easy access to a legislator’s full voting record, every committee vote, and every vote in the Committee of the Whole since 2009. It’s summarized by year, bill, and action of the legislative house.
Evidence-Based Wyoming is the only objective analysis of legislator voting records. Before you vote, visit EvidenceBasedWyoming.com and see if that incumbent really represents you, or is it time to give the challenger a try.
You can check out the 2020 ratings here. The Legislative Analysis Tool offers a host of information about our legislators. The Legislative Analysis Tool is meant to be a science project. The methodology is explained so others can reproduce the work.
The graph it generates is an interesting visual. You can see the 2020 report here.
The Legislative Analysis Tool must be as free from bias as possible, if it is to have any value. Having a robust set of bias-free facts to discuss our legislators’ voting history is essential. Ultimately the methodology of the Legislative Analysis tool gives a fair and objective comparison of our legislators. That said, to give fair warning, my conservative Republican political bias is evident in the blog.
There are also a number of interesting posts including one explaining the Legislative Analysis Tool ,“How do your legislators vote?“, and one about why the “Frontier Republicans” aren’t what they seem, “Frontier Republicans – About civility or control?”
If you have questions about Evidence-Based Wyoming or the Legislative Analysis Tool, ask!
Please send me, Doug Gerard, an email at [email protected].
