Methodology

How Aligned Vote turns a public record into a match you can trust — and check.

  1. You answer issue questions

    You work through a short set of issue questions and mark how important each one is to you. You can also say you are not sure, or that you do not care about an issue — those are kept distinct and left out of the score.

  2. We read each representative’s record

    For every politician we infer a position on each question from their public record — roll-call votes, bills they sponsored or cosponsored, and (for the President) executive actions. We work from the record, not from press releases or statements.

  3. Every position carries a confidence level

    Each inferred position is labelled high, medium, low, or no clear evidence. Only high and medium confidence positions count toward your score. Low-confidence positions are shown with a caveat; where there is no usable record, we say so and leave it out.

  4. We compute a weighted match

    Your score is a weighted comparison of your answers against each representative’s positions. Issues you marked as more important move the score more. The result is a match percentage and a tier.

Evidence and honesty

Every position links to the specific bill, vote, or action behind it, so you can check our work. We never display a fabricated position or quote. “We don't have clear evidence on this issue” is always an acceptable answer — we would rather show a gap than invent a stance.

Aligned Vote is non-partisan by construction. We don't endorse candidates, we don't take ad money, and independent and third-party candidates are treated the same as major-party incumbents.

Common questions

Is Aligned Vote partisan?
No. We don’t endorse candidates or take ad money, and independents and third-party officeholders are matched exactly the same way as Democrats and Republicans. Positions come from what each person has actually done, not their party label, which is why many people find they agree with officials on both sides.
Where does the data come from?
Official public records: roll-call votes from Congress.gov and senate.gov, bill sponsorships and cosponsorships from Congress.gov, presidential actions from the Federal Register, and campaign-finance totals from the Federal Election Commission. The data sources page lists every one.
How do you decide where a politician stands?
For each issue, we gather the votes, sponsored bills, and official actions that bear on it, and an AI model reads that evidence and picks the answer it best supports, along with a confidence level and a one-sentence summary citing the specific bills. The evidence it was given is stored with every position, so each one can be checked against the record.
What does “no clear evidence” mean?
It means the record doesn’t show where that person stands on that issue, so we don’t place them. We would rather show a gap than guess. Positions with only thin evidence are shown with a caveat and are left out of your match score.
How is my match score calculated?
For each issue you answered, we measure how far your answer is from the politician’s position, weighted by how important you said the issue is. Only positions with a clear record or some evidence count. Issues you skipped, weren’t sure about, or don’t care about are left out.
How often is it updated?
New bills, votes, and presidential actions are pulled in from official sources daily, and positions are re-checked weekly when new evidence has come in. Earlier versions are kept, not overwritten.
What about candidates who haven’t held office?
Challengers on your ballot have no voting record, so we use their own published words, quoted directly from their campaign sites, and label those matches as based on stated positions rather than a record.
Who can see my answers?
Only you. Your political answers are readable only by your account, and they are never sold or shared.

Spotted something that looks wrong? Let us know on the contact page.