Glossary

Short definitions of the terms you'll see on this site.

Votes in Congress

Roll-call vote: A vote in which each member's position is recorded by name. This site covers every roll-call vote in the House and Senate. Some decisions are made by voice vote, with no record of how each member voted; those can't be shown.
Yea, Nay, Present, Not Voting: A member can vote Yea (yes) or Nay (no), answer Present (recorded as there but taking no side), or not vote at all. On this site, filled dots are Yea, rings are Nay, small squares are Present, and dashes are Not Voting.
Paired or announced vote: An absent senator may "pair" with a senator on the other side who agrees not to vote, or announce how they would have voted. These don't count in the official tally, so they're shown as not voting.
Cloture: A Senate vote to end debate and move ahead, usually needing 60 votes. When the Senate's only vote on a bill was on cloture, we use it and label it.
Suspension of the rules: A fast-track House procedure for bills with broad support: debate is limited, no amendments are allowed, and passing needs two-thirds of those voting. The final vote is recorded as "On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass".
Self-executing rule: A House resolution setting the terms of debate that also, when adopted, passes or agrees to a bill. In that case the vote on the rule is the decisive vote.
Motion to recommit: A last-minute House motion, usually by the minority party, to send a bill back to committee. It's procedural, so we don't compare it with survey questions.
Amendment: A proposed change to a bill, voted on separately. A vote to block something through an amendment means voting Nay supports the thing being blocked.
Concur: To agree to the other chamber's version of a bill. Often the final step before a bill goes to the President.
Congress and session: Each Congress lasts two years, starting January 3 of odd-numbered years (the 119th Congress runs 2025–2027). Each year is a session. Roll-call numbers start over each session.
At-large district: A state with only one House seat, such as Alaska or Wyoming, elects its representative statewide.
Delegate: Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and four U.S. territories each elect a member of the House who can speak and serve on committees but can't vote on final passage.

Surveys and estimates

Ballot measure: A question put directly to a state's voters, such as a constitutional amendment or a citizens' initiative. This site shows certified statewide results beside the surveys, compared only with members who represent the whole state, and never counted in a member's score.
Weighting: Surveys adjust each respondent's influence so the people surveyed match the population, for example by age, education and region. We use each survey's own weights.
Range ("likely between"): The span the true share of supporters very likely falls in, at a 90% level: if we could repeat the survey many times, about 9 in 10 such ranges would contain the true figure.
Margin of error: How far a survey's result could be from the true figure because only some people were asked. Surveys usually publish it at a 95% level; we convert it to our 90% range.
Too close to call: When an area's range includes 50%, we can't tell whether most people support or oppose the proposal, so we don't say whether the member voted with or against them.
Clear majority: When an area's whole range is above 50% (most support) or below it (most oppose).
Partial pooling: A way to estimate opinion in small areas by borrowing strength from larger ones: a district's estimate is pulled toward its state's, more so when few people in the district were surveyed.
Related vote: A vote on a bill close to, but not the same as, what a survey asked about. Shown for context and never counted as voting with or against constituents.
Voted with the majority: The member's vote was on the same side as a clear majority of people in their state (senators) or district (representatives), according to that survey.

Members

Party majority: The position (Yea or Nay) most members of a party took on a vote. Independents are counted with the party they caucus with.
Bioguide ID: The official ID Congress gives each member, such as C001098. It appears in this site's web addresses.