Creating a Scorecard report

You can use the Scorecard feature to generate a spreadsheet report with a percentage score for each legislator. This report helps you identify which legislators are most aligned with your client's or organization's positions. The steps to creating a standard or custom scorecard are below.

Creating a Standard Scorecard

The standard default scorecard functionality will generate a report with all bills on the selected tracking list that passed the legislature and has a position value of "Support" or "Oppose." That position value is how LobbyGov knows how to calculate the score. If a bill you expect to see is not on the report, check to make sure you've set the position on the tracking list.

Here are the steps to generate a standard scorecard:

1. On the Generate tab of the Scorecards page, select which tracking list you'd like to generate the report for.
2. If you want to filter the report based on the first or second half of the biennium, select one of those options in the "Biennium Filter" section. Bills from both years will be included by default.
3. If you only want to see House or Senate bills, use the Chamber filter.
4. Select the Excused/Absent Votes options based on your preferences. By default, excused or absent votes do not count against the legislator's score.
5. Select the delivery method.
6. Click the "Generate" button when you're ready to generate the scorecard.

The last final passage vote will be automatically included in the report. If you want different votes, you'll need to create a custom scorecard.

Creating a Custom Scorecard

The custom scorecard functionality will allow you to specify which bills and floor votes to include in your report. You can also customize the vote label and the point value for each vote you select to include. Before you get started creating a custom scorecard, make sure all of the bills you want to include in the report are on your tracking list.

Here are the steps to create a custom scorecard:

1. Click the "Custom Scorecards" tab on the Scorecards page.
2. Click the "+ Add New" button. A window will appear. Provide a short description and select the tracking list you want to create the scorecard for. Then click "Save."
3. The page will then reload and you should see the scorecard you just created in the list. click the blue "Manage Bills" button to start customizing.
4. A window will appear that will include all bills on your tracking list that have one or more votes regardless of the outcome of the bill. Click the + sign to the left of each bill that you want to add to your scorecard.
5. After you click the + sign, all recorded floor votes associated with the bill will appear. Check the checkbox next to each vote you want to include. This is where you can also specify your own label and change the point value.  Click the "Save" button as you go so you don't lose your work.
6. After you've selected all the votes you want to include, click the "Save" button one last time and then click the "Close" button.
7. After the window closes, go back to the "Generate" tab on the Scorecards page.
8. Select the tracking list you want to generate the scorecard for. After you select the tracking list, a new option will appear below called "Select Card" with "Default" as the value. Change this value in the dropdown menu to the custom card you created.
9. After you select the custom card from the dropdown, select the Excused/Absent Votes options based on your preferences. By default, excused or absent votes do not count against the legislator's score.
10. Select the delivery method.
11. Click the "Generate" button when you're ready to generate the scorecard.