How to Use PartyLine

1

Rank your priorities (2 minutes)

The survey opens on the Priorities step. Tap the 13 issue topics in the order that matters most to you. Your top-ranked issues will count more toward your final match scores — so if healthcare is your #1 concern, politicians' healthcare votes will carry more weight than their votes on, say, foreign policy.

What you'll see

#1 Healthcare

#2 Climate & Environment

#3 Economy

+ 10 more topics…

2

Answer questions topic by topic (5–8 minutes)

For each of the 13 topics, you'll answer up to six yes-or-no sub-questions. Each one takes a single tap: Yes, No, or It Depends — "It Depends" is recorded as neutral, so it won't push your score either way. You don't have to answer every question — PartyLine can generate scores from partial answers. Each topic also shows a brief context description so you understand what the policy debate actually is before answering.

Example question — Healthcare

"The government should guarantee health coverage for all Americans."

Yes No It Depends

The progress bar shows "X of 13 topics started" — you can skip a topic entirely if you don't have a strong view on it.

3

Read your match results

After entering your location, PartyLine shows your match percentage with each politician in your area. The percentage is a weighted alignment score — higher means their actual votes are closer to your stated positions. Your "top matches" strip is chamber-balanced — two Senate matches and one House match — so one chamber can't crowd the other out; within each group, cards are sorted by match score.

Example match card

Sen. Jane Smith

Democrat · Texas · Incumbent

84%

Strong match on Healthcare, Climate · Mixed on Economy

Incumbents are scored from real voting records. Candidates without a voting record are estimated from their stated public positions (campaign materials, Ballotpedia, endorsements) and clearly labeled as estimates. A candidate with no substantive public evidence — only a party affiliation — shows “No score yet” rather than a number guessed from party alone. A candidate with public positions on at least three issues is scored on those issues only; any other issue on their card shows their party's typical position marked “(est.)”, which never counts toward your match. Look for the label on each card.

4

Open a profile to see issue-by-issue breakdown

Click any match card to open the full profile. You'll see a row for each issue the politician has enough votes on to be scored. The bar is filled to their score, from 0 to 100: 0 and 100 are the two sides of the issue, and the words under the bar say which side their votes favor. Each row also says how that compares with your own answers, from Strongly Agree in green to Strongly Disagree in red.

Example issue score row

Healthcare Strongly Agree

Strongly: Expand government role in healthcare · Based on 25 votes

Government spending & taxes Disagree

Leans: Lower taxes, less regulation · Based on 107 votes

5

Verify the underlying votes (optional)

Every score is based on official roll call data. If a score surprises you, you can trace it back to the actual votes. See the verification guide for step-by-step instructions using Congress.gov and GovTrack.