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Researching Legislative Voting Records

The records necessary for researching how a legislator voted on a bill are available on this Web site beginning with the 1995 session. Each session of the Wisconsin Legislature runs for two years and is referred to by the first year of the two-year session. For example, the 1995 Regular Session refers to the session spanning the years 1995-1996.

If you want to see a roll call on a specific bill and know the bill number, follow the steps below to fill in the form on the right side of the legislature's home page:

  Image of the active form used to search for text of legislation
1. Choose a house of origin.
2. Select the type of proposal (in this case, "bill").
3. Insert the bill number.
4. Select the session the bill was introduced.
5. Click the "Submit" button. The bill's procedural history will be returned.
6. For any roll call votes on the proposal history, the vote total is a link to the roll call.
If you do not know the bill number, you may be able to find it by searching on our documents site. Just type in what you're trying to find. To search in more detail, you can limit your search results using the filters on the right side of the screen.

Or, you can go directly to these sources:

  1. The Subject Index to Legislation allows you to search for bills by subject.
  2. The Author Index lists bills by the legislator who introduced them.
  3. The Journals provide information about the daily business of the legislature, including roll call votes. These are searchable as well.

When you have found the bill number, you can search for the roll call vote by following the steps listed above.

There is no official source for voting records by topic. Private groups frequently prepare issue-oriented voting records and you might wish to contact an appropriate group to see if they have compiled such a list.

For more detailed information on conducting roll call research, see the Legislative Reference Bureau publication, “Legislative Voting Records.”