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Congressional Voting Records: A Beginner's Guide

A research guide regarding how to determine how Members of Congress voted on bills, resolutions, and amendments.

Introduction

A subject that is of recurring interest to our patrons is how to find congressional voting records (also called roll call information). This topic presents more challenges than may be readily apparent because researchers must not only determine what resources cover the period of time in which the laws at issue were passed, but also whether that resource is available in a paper-based or freely available digital format.

As the availability of these resources is very date-specific, we have divided them into three main “eras” of data collection:

Harris & Ewing, photographer. Gen'l view of House Cou[...]reported bill to be voted on. 1937 or 1938. Harris & Ewing Collection. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.