MDN's unique database of legislative roll calls covers the significant legislative votes going back to 1995.

The role calls cover only significant, news worthy votes for which there is a clear issue. Excluded are votes on amendments or substitutes which contain a laundry-list of topics making it impossible to discern the issue upon which legislators were voting and, thus, making it impossible to write a simple description on what the vote was about.

Unfortunately, the legislature has begun routinely passing these omnibus, multi-subject amendments and substitutes that are in clear violation of the state Supreme Court's decisions affirming a constitutional provisions restricting bills to a single subject and prohibiting changing the original purpose of a bill.

The descriptions of the votes are written by MDN's director, Phill Brooks, who has covered the legislature for one-half century, making him dean of the statehouse press corps.

At the top of the vote list are three buttons you can click to adjust the order of the votes, the date the role call was taken, the bill form/number and description.

The first click will display the list in descending order of the category. A second click of the same button will display the list in ascending order.

The default order when the vote-list is loaded dscending order of roll-call dates. So, the latest vote will be at the top.

The description begins with the chamber in which the vote occurred, so clicking this button will put House votes before Senate votes.

To see details of a vote including how individual legislators voted along with links to the bill, simply double click the vote in which you are interested.

At the bottom is a selection box to select a different year for the votes display. There also is a selection box to limit the display to the votes taken in a specific chamber.

The View simply displays the details of a vote for which you made just one rather than a double click. The vote you selected will be displayed in red.