ClearVote™ is a nonpartisan candidate intelligence system built by Free Speech TX LLC. Every data point on a ClearVote scorecard is sourced directly from a federal government database or official public record. We do not editorialize, weight, or adjust scores — we surface what the public record says and let voters decide.
Data Sources
Campaign Finance — Federal Election Commission (FEC)
All campaign finance data comes directly from the FEC public API (api.open.fec.gov). This includes total raised, cash on hand, PAC contribution percentage, small donor percentage (under $200), top contributing industries, and individual itemized donor records ($200+). FEC data is updated quarterly and semi-annually by campaigns. We display the most recent filing cycle available.
Senate Voting Records — Senate.gov
Senate voting records come from the official Senate roll call XML feed at senate.gov. We calculate attendance rate by comparing recorded votes to total roll calls held per Congress session. Bipartisan rate reflects the percentage of votes where a senator voted with the opposing party majority. Covers the 118th and 119th Congress.
House Voting Records — Congress.gov
House voting records are sourced from the Congress.gov House Roll Call Votes API, launched in partnership with the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. This beta API covers votes on legislation from the 118th Congress (2023) onward. We display attendance rate, bipartisan rate, and a sample of recent votes.
Legislation — Congress.gov API
Bill sponsorship and cosponsorship data comes from the Congress.gov API, maintained by the Library of Congress. We display bills sponsored and cosponsored during the current Congress with titles, current status, and direct links to the Congress.gov bill page.
Committee Assignments — Congress.gov
Committee assignments for the 119th Congress are sourced from Congress.gov and official member websites. We include a plain-English description of each committee’s jurisdiction so voters understand which policy areas a member has influence over.
ClearVote Tags
ClearVote tags are plain-English labels automatically calculated from the underlying data using fixed thresholds. They are applied consistently to every candidate — never editorially.
| Tag | Threshold | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Mostly Small Donors | Over 60% of contributions under $200 | FEC |
| Mainly PAC Funded | Over 50% of funding from PACs | FEC |
| Mostly Home-State Funded | Under 25% of donors from out of state | FEC Schedule A |
| Rarely Misses a Vote | Under 2% of roll calls missed | Senate.gov / Congress.gov |
| Missed Several Votes | Over 10% of roll calls missed | Senate.gov / Congress.gov |
| Active Bill Sponsor | 5 or more bills sponsored this Congress | Congress.gov |
| Frequently Crosses Party Lines | Over 10% bipartisan vote rate | Senate.gov / Congress.gov |
| Regular Party-Line Voter | Over 95% party agreement rate | Senate.gov / Congress.gov |
| High Lobbying Interest | 100+ LD-203 filings reference this official | LDA.gov |
What We Do Not Show
We only display data we can verify. The following are not available through public APIs: specific lobbying firm contacts per official (LDA database does not support per-official filtering), and detailed financial disclosure asset values (the Senate EFTS system is not accessible from shared hosting environments). These will be added as data becomes available.
Nonpartisan Commitment
We apply identical methodology to all candidates regardless of party. All signals and tags are calculated automatically from the public record. The Free Speech Signal is the only dimension involving human editorial judgment and always cites specific documented sources.
Data Freshness
Candidate data is automatically refreshed every 24 hours. FEC data reflects the most recent quarterly or semi-annual filing. Vote data updates as new sessions are recorded. Each scorecard shows its last-updated date.