Skip to the content
Liberty Politics

How I score

Liberty Score turns each member's public voting record into one letter. This page is the whole method and the whole list of votes. If you think any of it is wrong, tell me.

Last updated October 4, 2026. Votes counted through September 30, 2026.

What I mean by liberty

One idea. Every person owns their own life: free to speak, believe, work, earn, trade and love as they choose, as long as they leave everyone else the same freedom. And a free people needs the strength to keep it.

That isn't left or right. The line that matters in politics runs between the people who widen that freedom and the people who take it away.

So I judge a rule by what it does, not by what it promises. The question is always the same: if this became the rule, everywhere it applies, for years, would people be more free or less? The intentions behind it, its slogan and who proposed it don't change the answer.

Asked honestly, that one question gives the eight principles below. Every vote on this site is counted under one of them, and the side I mark on it comes from the principle, never from who cast it.

Why count votes about other countries at all? Because freedom abroad pays off at home. Read the case, with the numbers.

Why some principles weigh more

Not every freedom is at the same risk. Life comes first, because every other freedom depends on it. A government that jails and kills people for what they think, and arms others to do it abroad, threatens all the rest at once. So the principles that protect life and free countries weigh most.

PrincipleWeightWhy it weighs that
Confronts tyranny and terror3A government that jails, tortures and kills people for what they think is the largest threat to freedom there is.
Stands with free nations and free peoples3Freedom is won or lost where free countries and free people are attacked. Leaving them alone leaves the field to their attackers.
Free speech and a free mind2Every other freedom is argued for in speech. A government that decides what may be said decides everything else.
Free markets and free trade2The freedom to work, own and trade is what makes people prosperous and independent of those in power.
One law, equal for every individual1.5Judging people by their group, whether by racists or by identity politics, is the oldest way of taking freedom from individuals.
Freedom of conscience1.5Only a state that favours no faith can protect every faith, and the people who have none.
Strong enough to stay free1.5A free country that cannot defend itself does not stay free for long.
Citizenship and the rule of law1.5Freedom lives inside a nation of laws. A country that cannot say who joins it cannot keep its own rules.

A weight of 3 counts twice as much as a weight of 1.5. The weights add up to 16, so no single principle decides a grade on its own.

What counts

  • Recorded votes. Roll-call votes in the House and the Senate in the 117th, 118th and 119th Congress, which means January 2021 to today. I use votes on passing a bill, and clean votes on a single question. I leave out procedural votes.
  • Signatures. For a few bills that never got a vote, sponsoring or cosponsoring the bill counts. A signature can count against a member too. Four House resolutions endorse the plan of one Iranian exile group, the MEK, and declare on behalf of Iranians which system they reject. Standing with a free people means letting them choose their own government in a free vote, not choosing it for them, so signing one of them counts against. Each is on the list below.
  • Nothing else, for anyone who has voted. Speeches, posts and interviews don't count. A member who talks one way and votes another gets the grade of the vote.

How a record becomes a letter

  1. For every vote on the list I say which side is the liberty side, and I give the reason. The list is below.
  2. Each time a member voted, the vote is marked as on the liberty side or against it. A missed vote or a vote of "present" is shown but not counted.
  3. Key votes count double. I choose them, and each one is marked, so you can disagree.
  4. On each principle, the score is the share of a member's counted actions that were with liberty, out of 100. A principle counts once the member has at least two actions on it.
  5. The total is the average of the member's principles, each weighted as in the table above. Twenty votes on one principle still count as one principle, so a long record on one question can't drown out the rest.
  6. The total becomes a letter on the scale below. A member needs at least 4 principles before a letter is shown.
LetterScore
A93 and up
A-90 and up
B+87 and up
B83 and up
B-80 and up
C+77 and up
C73 and up
C-70 and up
D+67 and up
D63 and up
D-60 and up
FBelow 60

The same test for everyone

One list of votes, one side marked on each, applied to every member of both parties. Friend or opponent, left or right, the same act gets the same side. I don't adjust a grade for who the member is, what they say, or whether I like them. The six delegates who can't vote on the House floor are listed without a grade.

Candidates on the November ballot

On the US race pages, a candidate who has voted in Congress since January 2021 carries a grade from those votes. That includes former members who are running again: they are graded on the same list, for the years they served.

A candidate who has not voted in those years is graded on the same scale, from the only record there is: what that candidate has said and done. For the closest races I go through it principle by principle, with a link to the source for every line, and I mark each line with the same test I use for votes. A line that doesn't settle the question is marked as not clear, and counts for nothing.

Deeds outweigh words. Inside each principle a line weighs what it is: something said counts once, an act (a vote in another body, a law signed, an order given) counts twice, and an act on the scale of a war fought or a regime's leaders removed counts four times. A speech outweighs a hint, and a deed outweighs a speech.

On each principle the candidate's score is the weighted share of the lines that are with liberty, out of 100. So one stray remark can't cancel a record of deeds.

How much a principle counts in the total also depends on how much there is to go on. One politician has thirty lines on a principle, another has one sentence. A principle counts at its full weight once its lines weigh 8: four acts, or eight statements. With less than that it counts in proportion, because a promise is easier than a decision. A line marked not clear adds nothing. Members of Congress don't need this step: they all face the same list of votes, so each principle counts at its full weight once a member has two votes on it.

The total is the weighted average of the principles, and it becomes a letter on the table above. A letter needs 4 principles, the same as for a member. A line is never marked by the religion or the origin of a person or a party: what is judged is what a law or an act does to freedom.

That letter is drawn as an outline, so you can always tell it from a grade made of votes. A promise is easier than a vote. Once a candidate is in Congress and voting, the votes take over.

Who is on the ballot comes from the state election offices, as compiled on Wikipedia, and every name is checked against the candidate file of the Federal Election Commission. The Senate list is checked a second time against Ballotpedia.

Politicians outside the United States

For Brazil, Israel, Spain and France I grade the people a voter is choosing between in the next national election. I hold roll-call records only for the US Congress, so nobody in another country carries a grade made of votes. Each one is graded the way an American candidate with no votes is: on what they have said and done, measure by measure, with a link to the source for every line.

The principles are the same eight, weighted the same way, and so is the test, in every country: an Israeli politician is judged on standing with free nations exactly as an American is, and defending Israel counts. Words count once, acts twice, and an act on the scale of a war fought four times. Every quote was found on the page it cites by a script that downloads the page, in the language it was said in. My English translation is printed first and the original words under it.

Who is on a country's page follows a rule that is printed at the foot of that page: the candidates left in a runoff, or everyone above a stated share in a named poll. The letter is drawn as an outline, the same as for an American candidate with no votes.

Where the data comes from

Grades come from recorded votes and cosponsored bills in the 117th, 118th and 119th Congress, counted through September 30, 2026. Last updated October 4, 2026. Vote data: Voteview, the Clerk of the House, the Secretary of the Senate and Congress.gov. Candidate lists: the state election offices, as compiled on Wikipedia, checked against the Federal Election Commission. Politicians outside the United States are graded on what they have said and done, each line with its source, not on votes. Every photograph is credited on the photo credits page.

What I'm less sure of

Every vote on this site is checked, member by member, against the official roll call. The short summaries are a different matter. For bills from 2021 to 2024 they were written from the roll-call record, not from reading each bill in full. If a summary is unfair or wrong, that's exactly the kind of note I want.

Corrections

If a vote is recorded wrong, say so in the discussion of the page it is on. I check it against the official roll call and fix it. Fixes that came from readers are listed in the Strategy Room.

Every vote I count

203 recorded votes and 29 bills, sorted by principle.

Confronts tyranny and terror

Stands up to the regimes and armed movements that rule by fear and export it: the regime in Tehran and the militias it arms, Putin's war, the Chinese Communist Party, terror groups and the networks that fund them.

Stands with free nations and free peoples

Backs democracies under attack and people rising against their rulers: Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan, the people of Iran, and the alliances that keep free countries safe. Rejects isolationism, left and right.

Free speech and a free mind

Against censorship by government or at its request. Every opinion, about any party, any idea or any religion, may be said and argued with.

Free markets and free trade

People keep what they earn and trade with whom they choose: lower taxes, less regulation, open trade, no price controls and no planned economy.

One law, equal for every individual

Rights belong to each person, never to a race, a sex or a group. Women and gay people equal under the same law; no one favoured or held back by race or sex; no ideology forced on children or soldiers.

Freedom of conscience

The state takes no side on religion. Every church, synagogue, mosque and temple is free, so is having no faith, and no religion's law is imposed on anyone.

  • Sponsorship · S. 3008 · introduced October 15, 2025
    No Shari'a Act
    Liberty position: sign on as a sponsor. No religious law in American courts or government, whatever the religion. The Senate has not voted on it, so cosponsorship is the only signal.
    The bill
  • Sponsorship · H.R. 5512 · introduced September 19, 2025
    No Shari'a Act
    Liberty position: sign on as a sponsor. No religious law in American courts or government, whatever the religion.
    The bill
  • House · H.Res. 492 · September 12, 2023 · the vote was 413 to 2
    Condemning the persecution of Iran's Baha'i minority (H.Res. 492)
    Liberty position: Yea. It stands with people the regime persecutes for their faith.
    The billThe roll call

Strong enough to stay free

Funds, equips and staffs the armed forces a free country needs to deter its enemies.

Citizenship and the rule of law

A free country decides who joins it, enforces its own laws, vets newcomers, and keeps out those who come to destroy its freedoms.

What would you count differently?

Say it where other readers can answer you. Opinions, videos and corrections about the method are all in one place.

Open the discussion
← The method

Discussion

How I score

All discussions, from every page →

A vote I should count and don't. A principle that weighs too much. A side I marked wrong. What readers post is their words, not mine. My answers carry the Host tag.

What kind of post is it?

Posting takes a free account. What you wrote is kept while you make one.

What you post here can be shown, quoted and shared on the site and on the shows. The terms

Leave out anything private about anyone. The rules, what your account keeps, and what readers have changed so far

Would you score it differently?

Tell the hosts which vote, and why, on a call. The community meets every day.

Join the daily call
Live on YouTube5 live shows a day, from 11am U.S. Eastern