So you are scorecard curious? Or perhaps the scorecard is serious! Either way, we hope this in-depth look gives you more insight. As always, let us know how we can help you further.
-1) Before You Start - Make Sure You Are Allowed to Use a Scorecard
Before you get too far into scorecards, you should check if you can legally use a scorecard. Many organizations consider scorecards to be simply a summary of facts and thus well in bounds, but if you are a (c)(3) charitable organization it is worth considering carefully if your presentation of the scorecard will be considered electioneering. See the Learn Foundation Law's website for some helpful resources on this topic. We encourage you to also consult your own legal professionals too. Of course, even if you can't publish your scorecard, there are still many useful ways you can use the scorecard as an internal tool, including as a handy reference of how people voted on your bills, a powerful way to search for legislative allies, or as nice visibility into the current lay of the land.
0) Getting Ready - Fundamental Decisions About Your Scorecard
When you are getting started on almost any project it's important to keep your ultimate goal in mind. Is it influence? Accountability? Information? Engagement? Revenge? Fun bling for your website?
A) Choose Bills
The first question to tackle is how you will determine which bills to score. There are several considerations. Do you want to build a scorecard for this session only or cover several years of history? Will you pick only the most important bills, consider everything even tangentially relevant to your topic, or maybe even rate all the bills in the session? Will you only consider bills that reached a certain point, like being heard in committee or crossing over? Will you only consider "good" bills or only consider "bad" bills? Will you take into account which bills other organizations are rating? Having a clear idea of what kind of bills you want to include will help you create your bill list with confidence.
B) Think about Timing
You also want to consider when you want to make your scorecard(s). If you are trying to generate engagement and action, you may want to make the scorecard early in the session and publish it as a live scoreboard. If you are more interested in helping people decide how to vote in the next election, highlighting your own impact on the session, or maybe even choosing a legislative champion to honor with an award, you might find it easier to wait until the session is over before creating your scorecard.
C) Establish A Rubric
It can also be useful to establish a scoring rubric before you get started rating, especially if you will have a team helping with the scoring. A set method of scoring will help with consistency and can be great for transparency to help your audience understand what your scores mean. You might come up with rules like 1 point for every $500k a bill reduces the budget and -1 point for every $500k a bill increases the budget, or +1 point if the bill increases access to the ballot box, or -1 if the bill reduces school choice, etc as appropriate for your organization. You can always adjust your rules as you start working through bills, but thinking through your approach to scoring before you start can save a lot of work later.
0) Getting Ready - Organizing Your Account
Once you have decided why you are making a scorecard, which bills to rate and when and how, you can simply enter the bills into your scorecard one by one. If you have very many bills, though, it is usually easier to upload your bills from a bill sheet into your scorecard. For help making a bill sheet, check out this post. However, keep in mind that bill sheets and scorecards are not linked. If you add a bill to your bill sheet later, or adjust a position on a bill during the session, your scorecard will not be automatically update with the new information. You can upload new bills anytime, and adjust scores anytime, but you'll need to do it from the scorecard.
Using bill sheets to upload bills can be important in two ways:
1. Save time by using the bill sheet query tools to identify and review your bills, which is exactly what bill sheets are designed to do best. If you are already tracking the bills you'll want to score, great! If you have a number of bill sheets and you just want to choose a few bills from each one, no problem. Create a new bill sheet, choose the appropriate state, and save it. Then use the + to quickly add bills you want to the new bill sheet. If you have a bill sheet that has your bills but you only want to use, say, the bills you have tagged as high priority, again no problem. Copy the master bill sheet by using the copy button on the manage tab, and then sort on your priority column, and x out all the bills you don't want.
2. Save time by using the position column in your bill sheet to give all of your bills a default score. Setting your position is quick and easy in a bill sheet, and if you like the default scores then you are done as soon as you load the bills. If you don’t already have a position column on your bill sheet, you can add it to your template (assuming you have template administrator authority). Choose a position for each bill you want to rate by double-clicking in the position cell. This is how to do so. Here's the default scoring:
- Strong Support = 5 points
- Support = 3 points
- Oppose = -3 points
- Strong Oppose = -5 points
- All other positions = 0 points
You can further tweak scores and add and remove individual bills once you have loaded your bill sheet(s) into your scorecard.
1) Create Your New Scorecard
Now that you've thought through what you need and possibly also created a bill sheet with your target bills, it is time to actually make your scorecard.
Click on Scorecards to open the scorecard section on the left blue navigation bar and choose "view all". The Scorecards summary screen will open and you can then click on the "New Scorecard" button.
A box will pop up asking you to pick a state and name the scorecard; fill these in and then click create.
As soon as you click "create" a new scorecard is created and you will be taken to the manage tab on the new scorecard to start loading bills.
2) The Manage Tab
The Manage tab is where you make overall decisions about how your scorecard will look and work as well as offering tools for loading bills in bulk. The Manage Tab is broken into four sections. Don't forget to hit save when you are done filling out your information!
A) "Scorecard Properties" section
In this section, you see the state that was chosen for this scorecard when it was created. This choice can't be changed. You can, however, edit the name, and add a subtitle.
You can also choose how you would like your scorecard to be sorted when it is first opened. You might want to emphasize the legislators with the biggest impact by choosing Total Score and Ascending. You might want to highlight the legislators with the worst voting record by sorting on Vote Index and Descending. You might want to sort by Legislator or District to make it easy for people to find their own legislators. Or maybe you have a point to make and want to sort by party. The sort you choose here allows you to make the first impression, but then whoever is looking at the scorecard can sort however they like to answer any questions they might have.
And finally, if your company administrator has loaded up any logos, you can choose to add a logo to your scorecard. See this video for more information on loading and using logos.
You can always come back to the manage tab and tweak any of these options anytime as needed. If you do make adjustments remember to click the save button at the bottom!
B) "Copy Bills" section
The copy bills section is where you choose to upload bills from one or more bill sheets. Simply click on the Bill Source drop-down, choose the bill sheet you want, and click the add bills button that appears.
You will receive a popup image showing that you successfully added bills. Rinse and repeat to add more bill sheets.
Note that if a bill is on more than one bill sheet it will only be added to the scorecard once.
Again, please keep in mind that loading bills from a bill sheet does not create a connection between the bill sheet and the scorecard. It simply initiates a one time load of bills. If you have a live bill sheet with bills being added all the time then you can come back and load up bills again later, and the system will add only the new bills from the bill sheet, and won't obliterate any work you've done on existing bills. If you would like bills from one or more bill sheets that meet certain criteria (like they have at least one vote, you support them, you have marked them high priority, etc) to be loaded automatically every night reach out to Karen to set that up for you.
C) Scoring Settings Section
Categories
You can segment the bills in your scorecard using categories. To do so, just click in the white space below the bill categories title and enter your first category and then type enter. Then type in your next category and then type enter. You'll see the categories being added as you go. You can remove categories or add new categories any time.
Quick tip: if you are adding multiple bill sheets and each one represents a category, try adding one bill sheet and then filling the category in on the legislation tab (see below), and then come back to the manage tab to add the next bill sheet, go to the legislation tab and sort by category to bring the blanks to the top and enter your second category, etc. through all of your category bill sheets. Filling in the categories right away can save some thinking later on.
More detail about how categories are actually used can be found below.
Include Absent and Abstain Votes
By default any vote that was not a Yes or No is counted as 0 points. However you can choose to give partial or full credit (or penalty) for missed votes by checking the Include Absent and Abstain Votes box. If a legislator missed a vote for whatever reason, then in effect they helped the bill go the way it did. So if the vote passed we’ll score the missed vote as if they voted Yes, and if the vote failed we’ll score the missed vote as if they voted No. You can decide how much to count the missed vote by entering a percentage between 0 and 100. If they should get half credit enter 50, if you want full credit as if they were there, enter 100, if you want 0 points for a missed vote enter 0. This primer explains this feature in more detail.
Another wrinkle is the "Possible" points and the "Vote Index" score on the Summary tab of the scorecard. The Possible points is how many points they would have gotten if they had voted correctly on every bill. If you leave the Include Absent and Abstain Votes box unchecked, then points for bills a legislator didn't vote on won't be counted as part of the possible score. If you check the box then the missed votes will be counted in the possible (which is why you would check the box but then enter 0). This matters mostly because the Vote Index is calculated using this formula: (Total Score + Possible Score) / (2 *Possible Score). Thus including missed votes but scoring them 0 doesn't change the total score, but it will lower the Vote Index for anyone who missed a vote. You can read a more in depth explanation on the nuances of scoring missed votes here.
Exclude Out Of Office Legislators
You can exclude legislators that are now out of office now by checking the "Exclude out of office Legislators" box. A legislator leaves office early in a session and only voting on the first few bills can result in a wacky score that makes the whole scorecard look weird. If that happens you can go ahead and remove that legislator by checking this box. Or if you have a multi-year scorecard but only want to bother with people still in office this option is pretty handy.
D) Sharing Section
When you first create a bill sheet it is private to you, and only people in your account that you have shared the bill sheet with can see it. So don't worry about anyone seeing your half finished scorecard while you are working on it. When you are ready to publish your bill sheet, check the "Make this scorecard public" check box to make the scorecard public. Links will appear which you can use to embed the scorecard on your website or share it in email or on social media.
You will need to save the scorecard before you can test the links. Once you have saved and come back you can see what the Public URL looks like and what the iFrame Source looks like. Choose which look you like better and share the link with whoever you want to see the scorecard. If you change your mind and uncheck the "Make this scorecard public" check box then these links stop working everywhere you've shared it. And starts working again if you check the box again.
You can also embed a scorecard on a page on your website using either link as the source for an iFrame in a statement something like:
<iframe height="600px" src="https://www.billtrack50.com/public/scorecard/summary/i3DV48BSaky1XgXHj/embed" width="100%"></iframe>
3) The Legislation Tab - Adding Bills
Now that you've made some decisions on the manage tab and clicked save, it is time to move to the Legislation Tab. If you used the Bill Source option to copy bills over, and you already have all the bills you need, you can go skip ahead to the next section. If you haven't added any bills yet, or have loaded up some but still need to add a few more, read on.
If you need to add an individual bill (or a few bills), head to the Legislation tab and locate the "+Add Bill" button.
Once you select the "+Add Bill" button you will be on a simple search screen starting with the normal dropdown listing search type options for All, Any, or Near, just like the quick search. You've already chosen the state, so that option is grayed out, you can't add a bill from a different state. Finally, notice the "Current Session" box. If that box is checked, it will only search for current session bills when you click the search button. Or more to the point, if you want to search for old sessions uncheck that box.
You can search by either keywords or bill numbers. If you are typing (or pasting) a bunch of bill numbers remember to change the search type to "Any Of". When you are done entering your terms click the search button. Review the results and click "+" next to the bill(s) you want to add to your scorecard. You can then enter another search term and click search again, or if you are done click the Done button to be taken back to the Legislation Tab.
4) The Legislation Tab - Scoring Bills
Once you have added the bills you want to the Legislation Tab, you can start working through your list bill by bill to score your bills. To start click the "Edit" link on the far right of the bill row to begin scoring.
If you haven't yet, this is the time to decide on your scoring rubric. You don't want to have to score the same bills several times, so knowing your strategy before you begin to edit the bills can help save time. Now let's walk through the Edit Bill page.
A) Bill Name Override
Some states do a nice job naming their bills, some not so much. Sometimes your bill will have a title that simply isn’t descriptive, is way too long or way too short, is flat-out confusing, or has a common nickname. Use this option to override the state name with your own preferred name. You can copy and paste the state’s title from the top of the screen and make small edits or you can simply start from scratch and enter your own name completely. If you don’t enter anything in this box, your bill will use the official title.
B) Bill Rating
For bill ratings, bills you support should be given a positive number, and bills you oppose should be given a negative number. The larger the absolute value of the number, the more important you feel the bill is. So a bill with a rating of 5 is a bill you support more strongly than a bill with a rating of 3, and a bill with a rating of -2 you oppose a little more strongly than a bill with a rating of -1. Bills you are following and want to be included in the scorecard, but don’t want to be factored into the scoring, should be given a 0. You decide the rating system. You can use simple -1 and 1, or use a scale of 1 to 5 like movie ratings, 1 to 10 (and -10), or whatever makes sense to you. The only requirement is that bad bills get a negative score.
If you chose to import your bills from a bill sheet and include a position column, your scorecard will use your entries in the position column to set default scores. (See section 0) Getting Your Account Ready above for a breakdown of the default scores.) You can choose the edit this default bill to adjust those scores and go through each vote to decide if it should be included or should have a different score.
C) Sponsor and Cosponsor Rating
You can score the primary sponsor and the cosponsors differently in your scorecards. You can give legislators extra credit (positive or negative) for sponsoring a bill. Note: we label the Possible Score column Poss Vote Score because we don’t account for the sponsorship bonus points in the possible score. So, if you give “extra credit” for sponsoring a bill, you can get legislators with a total score higher than the poss vote score. The sponsorship points can be a nice option if you find yourself trying to score lots of bills that never got a vote.
D) Categories
The Category drop-down allows you to assign one or more of your own category(s) to the bill. The list of categories is created on the Manage tab, see above for instructions. Assigning categories to bills can help you create a nuanced profile of a legislator. Adding categories has the following effects:
- A category column is added to the Legislation Tab
- A Category Drop Down List is added to all the other tabs which will limit the scoring on that tab to just that category. This ability is very cool, you should try it out.
- Add categories scores to the individual legislator scorecard that you get when you click on a legislator's name on the summary tab. This is also very cool.
See this video for more details on categories.
E) Comment
Click on the bill comments box to provide commentary on the bill. Be aware that the limit is 500 characters. Also be aware that if you add comments on an amendment vote on the bill, this more specific vote level comment shows up on the individual legislator scorecards next to the vote instead of the more general bill level comment. If you have more to say than the box allows see the next section.
F) Reference URL and URL text
If you wish to include a link at the end of your comment, you may do so in section 6. Links might be to a scoring PDF, blog post, news article, call to action, etc. Put the actual link (https://ww.BillTrack50.com) as the Reference URL and then the text you want to show "See BillTrack50 for details" in the URL Text box. Be enticing with the text if you want people to click!
G) Votes
The display in the vote section may vary from state to state depending on the data we are able to process and provide. By default only the most recent vote in each chamber is included in your final score. The calculator icon indicates which votes are being included.
If you wish to exclude a vote from being included in the score then select the drop-down where it says "default" and choose exclude. You can also include more votes in the score, like committee votes or votes on amendments, depending on the state. Change the default to "include" to add other votes on a bill. When explicitly including a vote you have the option to pick a different score and to provide additional commentary. This can be hany if a bill changes character during the legislative process and you want to change your rating for later votes, or if a vote is to kill the bill in which case you probably want to flip your rating. When you enter a comment in the vote section it will be displayed on a legislator's individual scorecard instead of the bill comment. For some more details on scoring individual votes see this short video.
Don't forget to hit save and then you can continue to repeat this process on the remaining bills on your legislation tab.
5) Review
You are almost done. Now you can review all your hard work! You can go back and add bills you forgot on the legislation tab, or go back to the manage tab and review the display and score settings. You can also remove bills you decide not to score by clicking the edit link and clicking the delete button all the way at the bottom of the screen. This would also be a good time to review the math as you review the summary tab.
6) Sharing Internally to Your Team
By default, scorecards are private and you need must grant specific permission for people to view them. In order to grant permissions, you must be set as a security administrator on your account. This user permission setting allows you to control sharing.
You'll know you have the right setting if you click on your name in the upper right, and the dropdown menu includes "Manage Users". You click "Edit" next to the same of the user to whom you wish to share the scorecard which takes you to the user profile. Once the user's profile shows up, you move to the scorecard tab to decide which scorecard to share and at what setting.
- None: The person with this permission cannot see the item. (This is the default)
- View: The person with this permission can see the scorecard, but cannot edit the scores or access the manage tab.
- Manage: Allows the individual with this permission to access the manage tab and edit the bills and scores.
7) Publishing Externally to a Website
You can return to the Manage tab now and double-check whether your sharing section settings are as you want. You can check or uncheck the "Make this scorecard public box". The first link gives you an option for a newsletter or a social media post. The second link is meant for you to embed as an iFrame on your page. We can provide technical support for you if you struggle with embedding it.
You can see some examples of other organization's scorecards in our Inspiration Post here. We also have this quick getting started video if you'd like to see a walkthrough. And of course reach out to us anytime for help.