Methodology

Tally Idaho covers every regular and special session of the Idaho Legislature from 2016 to the present. Earlier sessions are partially available through LegiScan but are not currently surfaced on Tally Idaho.

For each session we display: every introduced bill, every roll-call vote, sponsor and co-sponsor information, committee referrals, status history, and final disposition.

Bill data, vote records, and status changes are updated daily, typically within 18 hours of the official record being published by the Idaho Legislature. Legislator profiles are re-checked weekly during session and monthly during interim.

We do not provide real-time vote tracking. For minute-by-minute updates during active floor sessions, consult the Idaho Legislature directly.

When we report how a legislator voted, we use the same categories as the official roll-call record: Yea, Nay, Absent, and Excused. Absent and Excused votes are not counted as either support or opposition; they are displayed as their own category.

"Voting record" percentages displayed on legislator pages reflect only votes where the legislator was present and voted Yea or Nay. Absences are surfaced separately so voters can see attendance patterns without them distorting party-line analysis.

A bill is flagged as controversial when its final roll-call vote shows substantial cross-party disagreement — specifically, when the losing side received at least 25 percent of the cast votes.

This flag is objective and rule-based; it does not reflect Tally Idaho's editorial opinion about the bill's merits. A flag means "this bill divided legislators," not "this bill is bad" or "this bill is good." The rule is applied uniformly to all bills.

When LegiScan and the Idaho Legislature disagree on a data point, the Idaho Legislature's official record takes precedence. We treat LegiScan as a normalized, cross-state-friendly aggregator; we treat the Idaho Legislature's site as the source of truth for Idaho-specific facts.

Bill summaries displayed on Tally Idaho are paraphrased from the Statement of Purpose published with each bill by its sponsor. The original Statement of Purpose remains authoritative.

Tally Idaho does not:

• Endorse or rate legislators by ideology, party, or policy position.
• Predict outcomes of future votes or elections.
• Provide legal advice or interpretation of bill text.
• Generate AI-written analysis of legislative content.
• Track money in politics, campaign finance, or lobbyist activity.

For those, see resources like OpenSecrets, Ballotpedia, and the Idaho Secretary of State's office.

Spot an error? Email support@tallyidaho.com or use the Contact form's "Data Correction" option. We verify corrections against the Idaho Legislature's official record and update within 48 hours of confirmation.