Researching Legislative Voting Records

The records necessary for researching how a legislator voted on a bill are available on this Web site beginning with the 1995 session.  Each session of the Wisconsin Legislature runs for two years and is referred to by the first year of the two-year session.  For example, the 1995 Regular Session refers to the session spanning the years 1995-1996.

If you want to see a roll call on a specific bill and know the bill number, follow the steps below to fill in the form on the right side of the legislature's home page (opens in a new window):

1. Choose a house of origin.
2. Select the type of proposal (in this case, "bill").
3. Insert the bill number.
4. Select the session the bill was introduced.
5. Click the "Submit" button. The bill's procedural history will be returned.

 

6. If there was a roll call vote (indicated by the vote total, "Ayes 83, Noes 13" for example), the vote total itself is the link to the roll call.

If you do not know the bill number, you can find it by searching one of our folio databases (note: this link goes to a page with links to all available databases for all sessions.  The links in the text below go to the specific database indicated for the current session):

1. The Subject Index to Legislation on the right side of the page allows you to search for bills by subject. 
2. You may search for a word or a phrase in the bill text.
3. The database of "bill histories" contains the same information as the bill history available from the link above.
4. Using our database of bills by author (available since 1999 only), you can see what bills your senator or representative introduced.
5. The journals of each house provide information about the daily business of the legislature, including roll call votes. Our databases of Assembly and Senate Journals are full-text searchable.

When you have found the bill number, you can search for the roll call vote by following the steps listed above.

There is no "official" source for voting records by topic. Private groups frequently prepare issue-oriented voting records and you might wish to contact an appropriate group to see if they have compiled such a list.

For more detailed information on conducting roll call research, see the Legislative Reference Bureau publication, "Legislative Voting Records."

---

Back to Frequently Asked Questions | Back to Legislature Home Page