Our site debuted in March of 2012. Since then tens of thousands of people have been search for and reading bills on our site. We also get a lot of requests for legislator information. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what is most on people’s minds going into the election. Keep in mind our users are (of course) people interested in finding and reading bills on the internet, which is quite a specific audience.
The top 10 bills which have been read the most times on our site, starting with the most popular, are:
CA SB1002 Public records: electronic format.
CA SB1265 School districts: cafeteria fund.
NH HB310 Relative to the use of open data formats and the adoption of a statewide policy regarding open government data standards.
CA SB397 Online voter registration.
CO HB1048 End CBI Instacheck Duty For Firearm Transfers
NY S06779 Provides that a web site administrator shall remove any comments posted upon request unless the poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post.
MI HB5768 Military affairs; other; restriction of activities by Michigan national guard and state and local employees; provide for under certain circumstances.
NE LB22 Adopt the Mandate Opt-Out and Insurance Coverage Clarification Act
MS HB289 Fair Pay Act of 2012; create to require equivalent pay for equivalent jobs.
SC H3003 Relating to Voter ID cards
I looked at the topics of the top 100 bills read on our site, to see what general areas have been most interesting, and you’ll clearly see the same themes as those represented in the bills listed above:
For fun I also looked at the top 10 states that have generated the most interesting bills:
We also provide information on legislators, and those pages get a lot of traffic too. Here are the people who have gotten the most attention, starting with the most popular:
Juan C. Vargas – (D) California
Fran J. Pavley – (D) California
Ben Hueso – (D) California
Mimi Walters – (R) California
Richard Pan – (D) California
Steven C. Bradford – (D) California
Michael Gatto – (D) California
William J. Emmerson – (R) California
Loni Hancock – (D) California
Robert D. Dutton – (R) California
Maybe you notice something all of these legislators have in common. The first non California legislator on the list is David Sessions – (R) Alabama in position 49.
What do you think it all means?
About BillTrack50 – BillTrack50 offers free tools for citizens to easily research legislators and bills across all 50 states and Congress. BillTrack50 also offers professional tools to help organizations with ongoing legislative and regulatory tracking, as well as easy ways to share information both internally and with the public.