Key Vote 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.
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.
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. You can find the list of all bills from a particular year and state using this format: votesmart.org/bills/[state postal abbreviation]/[year]. 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.
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. I will use this tracking sheet to see when you are approaching the end of a year/state and assign you another.
