New app gives Illinois voters access to legislation, timely legislative information

Since January 2013, the Illinois General Assembly has filed 6,305 bills in the House and 3,667 bills in the Senate. These figures don’t account for the myriad amendments that are tacked on to many bills before the full legislature votes on them. With that many pieces of legislation, the average concerned citizen needs a mechanism...

Since January 2013, the Illinois General Assembly has filed 6,305 bills in the House and 3,667 bills in the Senate. These figures don’t account for the myriad amendments that are tacked on to many bills before the full legislature votes on them. With that many pieces of legislation, the average concerned citizen needs a mechanism to ensure that their lawmakers are truly representing the will of their constituents.

In February, the nonpartisan Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Michigan-based think tank, launched VoteSpotter, a free app that alerts users to key votes in their state legislature and allows them to give instant feedback to their legislators. The Illinois Policy Institute is excited to announce that we have adopted this revolutionary service and will be catering it to Illinoisans.

The VoteSpotter app not only offers a straightforward, user-friendly tool that increases lawmaker accountability, but it puts that tool in the palm of your hand. VoteSpotter equips its users with the ability to continually monitor – and vote on – their lawmakers’ performance, beyond Election Day.

To access VoteSpotter, users must simply download the app to their smartphone or tablet, and enter their home address to determine their state senator and state representative. The app then alerts users when their legislators vote on key bills. Every notification will contain a concise, neutral, comprehensible description of each bill or amendment. Users can notify their legislators if they agreed or disagreed with how they voted, and are given the choice to do so either via a phone call or email to their respective senator’s and/or representative’s office.

Users can even post their reaction on social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter, or notify their friends and neighbors via email or text message.

VoteSpotter encourages dialog between elected officials and their constituents. Users select the issues of importance to them, all of which impact Illinois’ economy, and in turn become better informed on the key votes that pertain to a wide range of issues, including: budget and taxes, education, health care, labor and open government.

This empowers voters with need-to-know information that will inform their judgments of their lawmakers’ voting record. In turn, lawmakers reap the benefit of receiving feedback from their most engaged, active constituents.

Policy changes lives. How your elected official voted on a given bill matters to you. Now it matters to them.

VoteSpotter helps legislators realize that the residents they were elected to serve will scrutinize their decisions if they do not agree with a particular vote on a given issue. And it makes the information that is critical to building an informed and attentive electorate easily accessible. The knowledge that this information is so widely available ought to remind legislators that no piece of legislation constitutes an exception when it comes to being beholden to your constituents.

The ultimate goal is for this knowledge to result in better votes. This means votes that create jobs. Votes that stimulate economic and employment growth. Votes that advance quality education options for every child in the state. Votes that inject consumer choice and competition into the health-care market. Votes that champion a free market and protect the rights of workers, employers and taxpayers. Votes that protect the public’s right to know about government finances and operations. Votes that drive better, more efficient service provision in local governments.

The Illinois Policy Institute’s government affairs team prides itself on its comprehensive, thorough legislative monitoring system. That’s why our team is uniquely positioned to offer this service. We read every single bill that is introduced before the General Assembly so that you don’t have to – but only you can hold your elected officials accountable. Thanks to VoteSpotter, you now have an even greater opportunity to do so, with the push of a button.