The PolTrack app has two main features.
PolTrack Report
This is the primary function of the app. A PolTrack report shows the extent of support a politician showed through his/her actions for the position on various issues of interest to one or more opinion providers.
Currently, there is information from more than 90 opinion providers available in PolTrack. Typically, an opinion provider is a public interest group (or a lobby) that publishes opinions on the actions taken by our elected officials. Additional providers can be added through the Action Opinion Entry tool described below.
Action Opinion Entry
This is a tool for entering action opinions. For example, if you have anything to say about a vote in the U.S. Congress, you could share your opinion with PolTrack users by entering your opinion through this tool. Every opinion must be associated with a verifiable action that an elected representative took.
PolTrack is not meant to track, for example, the promises made by a politician during an election campaign or the information about the politician's personal lives.
Currently, PolTrack allows entry of opinions on certain actions of the members of the U.S. Congress and of the U.S. presidents.
For members of the U.S. Congress, PolTrack supports the following action:
- Casting a recorded (roll call) vote in the U.S. Senate or in the U.S. House of Representatives.
- Signing up as an official sponsor or co-sponsor of legislation introduced in Congress.
For U.S. presidents, PolTrack supports tracking of their officially published position on legislation considered by the U.S. Congress. Please note that information about U.S. presidents available in PolTrack is very limited at this time.
Action Opinions Editorial Guidelines
The provider (the author) of any action opinion re-printed in PolTrack is always clearly identified. Action opinions are reprinted exactly as they were published by their author, except for minor formatting adjustments and grammatical corrections made to enhance readability. The action opinion provider (an organization or an individual) is solely responsible for the opinion content.
We reserve the right to reject any action opinion that, in our judgement, is
- In violation of the U.S. laws.
- Factually inaccurate. (However, all action opinions re-printed on PolTrack should be assumed to be subjective, reflecting the stance on issues of their author).
PolTrack History
The PolTrack app is the latest generation of a voter education tool that had started as na email newsletter VIS Ratings in 1995, which then became the Congressional Report Cards website in 1997.