How Scope matches you
Scope compares positions. It does not endorse any candidate or party, and it never tells you who to vote for. In short: you answer 8 questions; we compare your answers with how each member of Congress has voted and what they have said on the record; the closer they are to you, issue by issue, the higher the match. Every position links to its source.
Two separate measures
- How they vote. Calculated from the final roll-call vote on a set of key bills, each tied to an issue.
- What they say. Built from what a member has put their name to or said in public: bills they sponsor or cosponsor, floor speeches in the Congressional Record, and press releases from their own office. These are read by an AI model (see below).
We average the two for the match, show them separately on every result, and flag issues where they differ by 2 or more points on our -2 to +2 scale.
Where every number comes from.
What members vote and what they say are two separate measures. We show both and flag where they differ.
| Source | What we use it for | Coverage | Last updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Congress.gov: roll-call votes | How they vote: the final vote on a set of key bills, each tied to an issue | 25 votes, May 2017 to Jan 2026 | Oct 12, 2026 |
| Congress.gov: sponsored and cosponsored bills | What they say: the bills a member puts their name behind | 121,856 sponsorships | Oct 12, 2026 |
| Congressional Record (U.S. Government Publishing Office) | What they say: floor speeches | 1,898 speeches, Jan 2025 to Sep 2026 | Oct 8, 2026 |
| Members' official websites | What they say: press releases | 854 press releases, Apr 2008 to Oct 2026 | Oct 10, 2026 |
An AI model reads the bills, speeches and press releases to propose positions, and people review a sample. Every position links to its source.
Sources: Congress.gov, Congressional Record (GovInfo), and each member's official website.
A worked example
An illustration with made-up numbers, run through the same code that scores real members. Positions run from -2 (strongly against) to +2 (strongly for).
| Issue | Your answer (matters) | Their vote | Their statements | Their target | Issue match |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health care | +2 (a lot) | +1 | +2 | +1.5 | 88% |
| Taxes & spending | -1 (somewhat) | -2 | 0 | -1 | 100%Votes and words differ |
| Guns | +1 (a little) | No data | -1 | -1 | 50% |
- Their target is the average of their vote and their statements (or the one we have).
- Issue match = 1 minus (the gap between your answer and their target, divided by 4).
- Overall = the issue matches averaged, counting each by how much it matters to you: (88% × 3 + 100% × 2 + 50% × 1) ÷ 6 ≈ 85%.
Which votes count, and why
Scope asks 8 questions, one per issue. For votes, we use the final roll-call vote on a set of bills, each tied to one issue. Each bill has a direction (does a yes vote lean toward agreeing or disagreeing with our statement?) and a weight from 0 to 1 (how well the bill really tests that statement; a bundled bill that only partly fits gets a low weight). Abortion has no fair roll-call test of “leave it to the states,” so it is scored from statements only, and education has few votes behind it.
| Issue | Bill | A yes vote leans | Weight | Final vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Climate & energy | H.R. 1Lower Energy Costs Act | Toward disagree | 1 | House, Mar 30, 2023 |
| Climate & energy | H.R. 5376An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of S. Con. Res. 14. | Toward agree | 0.4 | House, Aug 12, 2022; Senate, Aug 7, 2022 |
| Education | H.R. 1An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14. | Toward agree | 0.3 | House, Jul 3, 2025; Senate, Jul 1, 2025 |
| Education | H.R. 5Parents Bill of Rights Act | Toward agree | 0.1 | House, Mar 24, 2023 |
| Education | H.R. 1An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018. | Toward agree | 0.1 | House, Dec 20, 2017; Senate, Dec 2, 2017 |
| Foreign policy | H.R. 815Making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2024, and for other purposes. | Toward agree | 1 | Senate, Apr 24, 2024 |
| Foreign policy | H.R. 8034Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024 | Toward agree | 0.5 | House, Apr 20, 2024 |
| Foreign policy | H.R. 8035Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024 | Toward agree | 0.5 | House, Apr 20, 2024 |
| Foreign policy | H.R. 8036Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024 | Toward agree | 0.5 | House, Apr 20, 2024 |
| Foreign policy | S. 1071National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 | Toward agree | 0.3 | House, Dec 10, 2025; Senate, Dec 17, 2025 |
| Guns | H.R. 8Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019 | Toward agree | 1 | House, Feb 27, 2019 |
| Guns | S. 2938Bipartisan Safer Communities Act | Toward agree | 0.2 | House, Jun 24, 2022; Senate, Jun 24, 2022 |
| Health care | H.R. 1628American Health Care Act of 2017 | Toward disagree | 1 | House, May 4, 2017 |
| Health care | H.R. 1425Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act | Toward agree | 0.7 | House, Jun 29, 2020 |
| Health care | H.R. 1834To advance policy priorities that will break the gridlock. | Toward agree | 0.5 | House, Jan 8, 2026 |
| Health care | H.R. 1An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14. | Toward disagree | 0.5 | House, Jul 3, 2025; Senate, Jul 1, 2025 |
| Health care | H.R. 5376An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of S. Con. Res. 14. | Toward agree | 0.35 | House, Aug 12, 2022; Senate, Aug 7, 2022 |
| Health care | H.R. 1319American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 | Toward agree | 0.35 | House, Mar 10, 2021; Senate, Mar 6, 2021 |
| Immigration | H.R. 2Secure the Border Act of 2023 | Toward agree | 1 | House, May 11, 2023 |
| Immigration | S. 5Laken Riley Act | Toward agree | 0.4 | House, Jan 22, 2025; Senate, Jan 20, 2025 |
| Immigration | H.R. 1An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14. | Toward agree | 0.4 | House, Jul 3, 2025; Senate, Jul 1, 2025 |
| Taxes & spending | H.R. 1An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018. | Toward agree | 1 | House, Dec 20, 2017; Senate, Dec 2, 2017 |
| Taxes & spending | H.R. 1An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14. | Toward agree | 1 | House, Jul 3, 2025; Senate, Jul 1, 2025 |
The "Where you lie" chart
The chart on your results page puts you on one line, between the typical Democratic record and the typical Republican record, with every member of Congress shown as a dot. It is separate from your match percentages and does not change them.
How it is built
- For each topic we take every member's position (the average of how they vote and what they say, from -2 to +2).
- We average those positions for the Democratic members and, separately, for the Republican members. The gap between the two averages says how much that topic divides the parties.
- A topic counts only if the parties are at least 1 point apart on it. On October 12, 2026 that was health care, taxes and spending, immigration, climate and energy, guns and education. Foreign policy and abortion did not count: the parties are close together on them in our data, so they would only add noise.
- Your place on the line is how far your answers sit from the typical Democratic record, measured in the direction the two parties pull apart. A topic with a bigger gap moves your dot more. 0 is the typical Democratic record and 100 is the typical Republican record. You can land past either end if your answers are stronger than the typical member's, whose record is pulled toward the middle by votes and statements that are not all-or-nothing.
- Members are placed on the same line the same way. You need at least 3 counted topics answered to be placed.
What it shows
On October 12, 2026 this line sorted 527 of 528 members into their own party, and only about 14 members sat anywhere in the middle. That is a fact about how closely the voting and statement records follow party lines on these topics. It means the line measures which party's record yours resembles, and the middle of it is a place almost no member of Congress occupies.
What it does not mean
- It is not a measure of how liberal or conservative you are, and we do not use those words for it. They mean different things to different people, and this chart measures only the two parties' records.
- It is not a judgment. A person in the middle may hold a mix of positions that the parties have bundled differently, which is why the "By topic" view shows each topic separately.
- It describes records, not people. Members of Congress vote with their party for many reasons.
- It rests on a short quiz and on the same data as the match, with the same limits described above.
Where AI is used
Positions on what members say are first drafted by an AI model (Claude Sonnet, from Anthropic). It reads bills, floor speeches and press releases and proposes whether each clearly agrees or disagrees with one of our statements, and how directly. For speeches and press releases it must give a word-for-word quote, and the software throws away any quote that is not really in the source. The AI does not score or rank anyone: the match math is plain arithmetic. People then spot-check a sample of the AI's readings, and a position is only labeled verified after a person approves it. We have not measured how often the AI is wrong, so treat any single reading as a lead to check against its source link.
Known limits
- Eight questions cannot capture everything about a person or a member of Congress.
- Only a small set of final roll-call votes is used. Votes on big bills bundle many provisions, and a few bills are rough fits for their issue (they carry a low weight). For some issues, only one chamber's vote is included, so senators or representatives can have less vote data there.
- Speeches cover January 2025 onward, and press releases are mostly recent items. Members who speak or write less have less data. Members with too little data are left out of the ranking instead of guessed at.
- A position is a snapshot of the current record. If a member changed their mind over time, the history is in the revision list on their page, but the match uses only the current position.
- Signing onto a bill, giving a speech and casting a vote are different acts, which is why we keep them as separate measures.
What we record about visitors
Everyone: when you finish the assessment we add one to the "assessments completed" count. That records a date and time, and nothing else: no answers, no ID, no address. Your answers and progress are kept only in your own browser.
Only if you answer "Yes, add my answers" when you finish the quiz: we save your answers and how much each matters to you, your match percentages, and the state, age range and gender you gave before the quiz, if any. We never save your name, email, ZIP code or address. These answers feed the anonymous totals on the Insights page and the "how you compare" section. A group is shown only once 20 or more people are in it. They are kept for research, and because nothing links them back to you they cannot be looked up and deleted later.
Address lookups (your officials, your ballot) are sent once to the U.S. Census, Google and the FEC to find your district and races, and are never stored by Scope. A ZIP code typed before the quiz is sent once to a free lookup to find your state.
If you make an account, we store your email and the results of any assessment you finish while signed in. You can delete the account, and everything saved under it, from the account page.
The hot topic quizzes keep your answers in your own browser. They are not sent to Scope, so they are not part of any total. A result you choose to share is a link that carries the answers and nothing else.
The Scope Pro preview tools remember a few things in your own browser and nowhere else: the state and district you chose, the members you follow, and how you said you would vote on real bills. Comparing with a friend works from the two links alone and saves nothing. If you ask to be told when Pro is ready, that yes or no is stored with your account so we can send you one email.
The shared answers come from people who chose to share, so they are not a representative poll.
Technical details
The scale
Every answer and every position is a whole number from -2 (strongly disagree or against) to +2 (strongly agree or for). Questions are worded so that agreeing does not always mean the same side.
From votes to a position
For each issue, each tracked bill adds its direction × weight when the member votes yea (and the opposite for nay). A vote-based position is 2 × (weighted yea/nay balance) ÷ max(total weight, 1), so a single vote on a low-weight bill cannot reach the extremes.
From words to a position
Each reading has a direction (+1 or -1) and a strength (1, 0.5 or 0.25). Sponsoring a bill and giving a floor speech count double; cosponsoring and office press releases count once. Weak evidence is pulled toward neutral: the full range needs a total weight of 2.
The score
- Target = average of the vote position and the stated position (or whichever exists).
- Issue score = 1 − |your answer − target| ÷ 4.
- Skipped issues, and issues with no data on the member, are left out.
- Overall = average of issue scores weighted by importance (a little = 1, somewhat = 2, a lot = 3), as a whole percent.
- A member is ranked only with at least 3 scored issues and at least half of the issues you answered.
- Votes and statements 2 or more points apart on an issue are flagged.
Your local officials and privacy
An address is sent once, through our server, to the free U.S. Census Bureau geocoder to find your district, and is not stored. You can use Scope with no account; your answers stay in your browser unless you answer “Yes, add my answers” when you finish the quiz, to join the anonymous totals, and we never collect names, emails, ZIP codes or addresses. A finished assessment is counted with only a date and time. Aggregate patterns only cover groups of at least 20 people.
Changelog
- 2026-10-12The results page is now a dashboard: your closest match, an issue-profile chart, a "Where you lie" chart that places you between the typical Democratic and Republican records with every member of Congress as a dot, ways to sharpen your matches, a preview of your ballot, your matches with headshots, and a teaser for Scope Pro.
- 2026-10-12The ballot page became a sample ballot with the two main candidates side by side. Every race now says whether it comes from the official ballot or is not yet official, and a name we cannot confirm is labeled as assumed or left out. A problem was fixed that had left sitting members without a match on official ballots (Michigan and Virginia). Retiring members are no longer shown as running.
- 2026-10-12Added a preview of Scope Pro (free for now): vote on the real bills, follow your officials, words versus votes, compare any two members, compare with a friend, and a printable voter guide. Added eight hot topic quizzes, which show where you stand but do not match you with politicians.
- 2026-10-11Added two votes from after July 2025: the House vote on extending the enhanced ACA health insurance subsidies (health care, weight 0.5) and the 2026 defense bill (foreign policy, weight 0.3). Votes now run through Jan 8, 2026. Both were checked against Congress.gov and approved.
- 2026-10-11Added free accounts, a ballot page for the Nov 3, 2026 election, more quiz questions with both sides explained, and a contact address for reporting mistakes.
- 2026-10-08Scope went live with 539 current members of Congress, every position approved and linked to a source.
- 2026-10-07Statements now also come from floor speeches (Congressional Record) and press releases, each with a word-for-word quote checked against the source.
- 2026-10-07Audited the vote list against Congress.gov. Lowered the weight of four bills that only partly fit their issue; removed one abortion bill that did not test the question; added the 2025 budget law for immigration and education; added three House foreign-aid bills.
- 2026-10-07The vote list now uses the latest final vote in each chamber, and weak vote evidence is pulled toward neutral so one vote on a low-weight bill cannot read as a strong position.
- Undated, during the buildAdded a rule that members are ranked only if scored on at least 3 issues and at least half of the issues you answered. Fixed a bug that had left some source links unsaved.
Found a mistake?
Email hello@scopevote.com with the politician, the issue and what looks wrong. We read every message and correct what we can check against the source. Every position also links to its source so you can check it yourself.