We’re pleased to introduce our first-ever ACLU of Idaho Legislative Scorecard. Take a look at our newest membership tool to hold our elected officials accountable to preserving and defending civil rights in Idaho.
What is a legislative scorecard?
Different from our Legislative Session Report, we created the Legislative Scorecard to let you know where your legislators stand on a number of key civil liberty issues based on their voting record during the 2017 legislative session. Being that this is our first scorecard, we want to make sure you know how we created it and most importantly, how we hope you’ll use it.
How is the scorecard made?
Each session we make sure that all legislators know our position prior to voting on important civil liberty issues by distributing a floor statement explaining our stance. We then select a variety of key issues to include in our scorecard. In cases where we weren’t able to issue a floor statement on a particular bill, we refrained from scoring lawmakers on that vote..
For our 2017 scorecard, we scored 8 bills and tracked how each state senator and representative voted along 3 fronts: voted with the ACLU, opposed the ACLU, or were absent for the vote. We’ve also included background information and the outcome of each bill, as well as an overall percentage for each legislator on how often they voted with the ACLU.
I’ve downloaded the scorecard. Now what?
Read it, share it and move to action. In creating the legislative scorecard our goal is to provide an easy-to-read (and great looking) tool for individuals and communities to use when engaging lawmakers about protecting our constitutional rights.
You might notice that one of your representatives voted against voter restrictions. Why not give them a call to let them know you much you appreciate their vote? On the other hand, maybe that same representative supported a bill that restricts the due process rights of rental property tenants. Send them an email and let them know you’re concerned.
Here at the ACLU we believe direct communication with your lawmakers is the best way to encourage them to protect our freedoms and stand up for our constitutional rights. To that effect, we hope the legislative scorecard will help guide future conversations with your elected representatives and senator. If you used our legislative scorecard to reach out to your lawmaker, whether by phone, email or in person – we want to know how your conversation went. Share your feedback by contacting kgriesmyer@acluidaho.org
We want to hear from you!
