Historical Charts & Histories

Some of the most fun we have on this site is adding new visual goodies for making it easier to know.

Tonight, we added our first charts to the site.  In this case, historical charts for interest group ratings:

Every interest group report score (e.g. 29%, in the example above) is built on a whole set of historical ratings that interest group has given.  We smooth out the edges and summarize them with a current score which consider the whole history between the politician and the interest group.

Before today, you could see all those ratings by hovering over any interest group report score and you’d get a listing of all those ratings, in text.  But seeing it visually is much easier on the eyes, and we think tells a better story of the history.

You can hover over any of those points, and you’ll see details for that rating:

Click on it, and we’ll take you right to the Project Vote Smart page for the data that powers that very rating (e.g., for the rating above).

Again, from our end It’s nice to see these little features come to light.  But it’s just a hint of what’s to come.  Here’s to making it easy to know.