Each year, The Locke & Smith Foundation publishes its Constitutional Scorecard, providing transparency on how the Foundation has evaluated every piece of legislation passed by the Missouri General Assembly. The Scorecard also includes rankings of Senators and Representatives based on their voting records. Additionally, the Foundation presents The Locke & Smith Foundation Granite Plaque to the Senator and Representative in each chamber with the most constitutionally aligned voting record.
Reading the Scorecards
Each column has a purpose and provides insight into the overall picture of the voting records of the General Assembly.
| Column Name | Information |
|---|---|
| Bill | This is a link directly to the Bill text pdf document. HBxxx refers to the Bill itself, HBxxxTA refers to a Truly Agreed substitute, whereas HBxxxEC and HBxxxTAEC refers to the Emergency Clause (if any) as that is voted separately. Acceptance or Rejection of a Bill’s Constitutionality is independent of any Emergency Clause that may be present |
| Review Result | Accept: No Constitutional Objections have been raised Reject: Constitutional Objection(s) identified Aut Modo: latin for Either Way. There is no Constitutional Objection(s) identified, however the content of the bill does not warrant scoring and a vote either way will not effect the final score. Absent still scores 0 and Present still scores -1 |
| Section Used for Rejection | Primary section identified (if any) that is not in alignment with the Constitution. There may be multiple possible objections, however this column will only reflect a single section objected to |
| Constitutional Objection | Article and Section of the Constitution where the Objection was in violation of |
| Yes | No | Present | Absent or AWL or AWOL | Vacant | Excused | Results of the vote from the House or Senate Roll Calls directly |
| Last Action | This is generally taken from the Bill Status Report, displaying the date and action most recently taken on the Bill |
| Individual Representative/Senator | Reflects the scoring based on their vote and the Review Result for each Bill voted on |
| (S/H) Pass/Defeat | This shows if a Bill has passed (Y) or has been defeated (N) in the House and/or Senate for the version of the Bill on this line |
At the bottom of the scorecard, the totals are calculated for each Representative/Senator as follows:
| Correct Votes | Votes that align with the Review Result. Does not include recorded Absent, Present (no vote). Also does not include votes with a Review Result of Aut Modo |
| Absence | Recorded Absent during voting (excused). No points deducted/added from/to score, however count towards the Scored Votes in case of Aut Modo |
| Unexcused Absence | Recorded Absent during voting (unexcused). No points deducted/added from/to score, however count towards the Scored Votes in case of Aut Modo |
| Present | Each point is a deduction from the Point Score. These are deducted regardless of the Review Result, as they represent a failure to uphold the constituents’ interests |
| Total Votes For Chamber | The amount of votes that the chamber had |
| Point Score | Correct Votes minus Present votes |
| Scored Votes | This is the Total Votes in which the score of the individual Representative or Senator is scored against |
| Calculated Score | Calculated percentage of Point Score vs Scored Votes. The highest and second highest scores are highlighted as follows: Highest Second Highest |