Key Votes Summer Interns
Re-categorizing
The whole Vote Smart site is going through an upgrade to synthesize our information. All aspects of the site (votes, finance, speeches, etc.) are going to have one homogeneous category system to improve the search function. Key Votes is already categorized, but there are new categories and some of the old categories have changed names slightly. We have an automatic switch from old to new, similar categories but you'll need to check that this is right. You'll go through and read the summary of the bill and determine if the category is correct and whether another applies as well. This is a pretty exciting process for our site, and you'll be the first to try it out.
Re-formatting
Our Key Votes are looking a bit shabby; we switched to an easier system but the old formatting stayed. Our summaries are in a big block and are hard to read – it's your job to make them readable again. The newer votes, and most of the federal bills from the past decade, are correct so you can look them up to check what corrected bills should look like. You will also be making corrections to ensure non-partisan and cohesive language.
Re-categorizing and re-formatting will take place simultaneously. Interns will be assigned a state and do both 2013 and 2012 for that state. Once all states have been completed for 2012, we will go back through the years as far as possible. There is a tracking sheet to keep record of what bills have been done, containing the year, state, and bill number, which you must fill out as you go. If you have questions about a particular bill, let me know. If I'm not available, Ben is in charge of categories and can help out. If neither of us are around, leave a note on the tracking sheet.
Finding Bills
You can find the list of all bills from a particular year and state using this format: votesmart.org/bills/[state postal abbreviation]/[year] (e.g. votesmart.org/bills/CA/2012). For congressional, use abbreviation NA. I find it easier to go in order from top to bottom (reverse chronologically), but you can decide how you go through.
1. Once you have opened the page for your state and year, go through each bill in order. Be sure you have the correct state and year, and all issues selected.
In this case, you would start with S 743. Open the link and see if the summary will have to be re-formatted. Some bills, particularly from 2013, may not have a summary uploaded yet. Skip bills that say "Project Vote Smart staff and volunteers are working hard to produce a clear and accurate summary...". Some bills may also only have a synopsis and no highlights. Though obviously these don't need formatting, they will need categories.
2. Open admin.votesmart.org and login
3. On the left hand side, click Congress Track
4. Drop down the state, type the bill number, and select the year. You can enter just the number or the number and letter; both will work.
5. Select View for the bill
6. Once you have finished reformatting and recategorizing (as explained in the above links), go to the next bill chronologically. Some bills have multiple selected bill stages; you don't need to re-do those. Once you have completed your state for 2013 and 2012, let me know and you will be assigned another. Once all states are complete through 2012, we will move back as far as we can.
