CQ Congress Collection: Help

Help: Voting Alignment

The Voting Alignment feature of CQ Congress Collection allows users to compare the votes of two members on CQ Key Votes, to determine how often a member voted with his or her political party on CQ Key Votes, and to evaluate the cohesiveness of a state delegation on CQ Key Votes.

The Voting Alignment Search Screen

Users have the option of limiting their analysis to CQ Key Votes taken during a particular Congress. If you are interested, for example, only in votes taken during the 101st Congress, select the 101st Congress from the drop-down menu.

Member Alignment. How do two members compare on CQ Key Votes?
First, select the initial letter of the last name of the members being compared. For example, to compare the votes of Neil Abercrombie and Scotty Baesler, select letter "A" for Member 1 and letter "B" for Member 2. After the page refreshes, select Reps. Abercrombie and Baesler from the drop-down menus. Then click the "Find Member Alignment" button.
If you selected members that did not serve in Congress at the same time or did not serve in the same chamber at the same time, there will be no results.
Party Unity. How often did a member vote with his or her political party?
First, select the initial letter of the last name of the member whose record you would like to analyze. After the page refreshes, select the member from the drop-down menu. Click the "Find Party Unity" button to execute your search. The results will show how that member's record on CQ Key Votes conforms with the votes of the majority of his or her colleagues of the same party on the same votes.
State Delegation Alignment. How often did members of a state's delegation vote together?
Users select a state from the left drop-down menu, and a chamber of Congress from the right. When the "Find State Alignment" button is clicked, the database will return the number of CQ Key Votes on which the majority of the state's senators or representatives (depending on your selection from the right drop-down menu) voted nay, voted yea, split their vote, or voted the same way.

Search Results

Whether analyzing voting alignments, party unity, or state delegation alignment, your search will result in a numerical value or values, representing the number of votes that met your criteria. Clicking on the number will reveal the list of individual CQ Key Votes behind the number. Each key vote title, when clicked, will open a document window containing

a Key Votes Box Score
links to the complete roll-call tally, to Detailed Vote Analysis, to "Map It," and to full text of the measure
a brief description of the vote and related documents

CQ Key Vote Voting Alignment Outcomes

Voted the same	All voting members voted either Y or N.
Majority voted yea	Less than a unanimous vote. There were more voting members who voted Y than N.
Majority voted nay	Less than a unanimous vote. There were more voting members who voted N than Y.
Tie vote	There was the same number of Y votes as N votes.

Note: The "No. of CQ Key Votes" and "% of Total" in "100% Voted together" are not included in the totals in "Majority voted yea" or " Majority voted nay."