Unique Website Gives Complete, Concise Pennsylvania Legislative Information

Pennsylvania Votes gives users instant access to concise, plain language and objective descriptions of every single bill, amendment, and vote that takes place in the Pennsylvania legislature. Unlike any other bill tracking utility, Pennsylvania Votes, is unique because all legislative actions are described - not just those selected by a particular interest group. It is searchable by legislator, keyword, and 50 subject categories, so users can create their own custom "voting record guide."

Pennsylvania Votes has all these features:

• * Concise, plain-language, objective and accurate descriptions of every bill, amendment, roll call vote and voice vote.
• Ability to track all the votes of a particular legislator, or search by bill number, category or keyword.
• Ability to view all the bills and amendments introduced by a particular legislator.
• Ability to post a public comment, view others' comments, and participate in citizen surveys on each bill.
• Automatically e-mail legislators or others about a bill.
• Ability to follow action in any one or more of 50 different categories of legislation (such as Education or Land Use or Taxes).
• Ability to sign up for e-mail notifications of action on any bill or subject area of interest, including new bill introductions.

Pennsylvania Votes also provides citizens with an on-line forum where they can exchange views with others about specific bills or other Pennsylvania public policy or political issues. A “point of view neutral” blog invites users to post comments on topical issues of the day. Specialized wikis concentrate the dispersed knowledge of many users to create even greater transparency regarding individual legislators, Pennsylvania judges, local units of government and school districts. Finally, a blog aggregator displays the latest posts from Pennsylvania’s leading political and public policy blogs, right, left and center.

Pennsylvania Votes is a free public service of the Commonwealth Foundation, an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and educational institution. Its purpose is to inform citizens, community leaders, business people, media, and public officials about legislation that affects their families, schools, jobs and communities. The site empowers citizens to take a more active part in the democratic process, and hold their elected representatives accountable.

PennsylvaniaVotes does not release (nor has it ever released) to third parties any personal identifying information of past or current website visitors, including registered users, without express permission, except as required by law.

About PennsylvaniaVotes.org descriptions: The descriptions on this site are assembled by the editor from a variety of sources. Bill sponsors, legislative analysts, and policy specialists from the Commonwealth Foundation and from many other organizations are often consulted to provide background and context for particular bills or votes. Many descriptions contain verbatim passages from bill analyses created by non-partisan legislative staff, and other non-copyrighted public sources.

Attention Organizations and Newsletters: Permission is hereby granted to reprint the above as an informative article in your own newsletter or other means of distribution. For additional information about PennsylvaniaVotes.org please call the description editor at the Commonwealth Foundation at (717) 671 -1901