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This page describes the format of the roll call votes XML files in data/us/SESSION/rolls.

The files are named as follows: [hs]YYYY-NNN.xml. The initial "h" or "s" signifies whether the vote took place in the House or Senate. YYYY signifies the four-digit year the vote took place in. NNN is the roll number according to the House or Senate, **without any padding zeroes**. (That is, the fact that I wrote three N's is incidental.) The Senate restarts its numbering every calendar year, whereas the House restarts its numbering after each two-year session.

Inside the file, the XML structure is as follows:

• roll root element
  • attributes:
    • where attribute: either "house" or "senate"
    • session attribute: the session number (e.g. 110)
    • year attribute: the year the vote took place in (same as in the file name)
    • roll attribute: the number of the vote (same as in the file name)
    • datetime attribute: the date and time of the vote, such as "2007-01-04T12:32:00-05:00"
    • updated attribute: the date and time the file was updated, same date format as above
    • aye, nay, nv, present attributes: total counts for aye, nay, not voting, and present votes.
  • type element: The type of the vote, taken right from the source data. Something like "On Passage".
  • question element: A description of the vote, taken right from the source data.
  • required element: Describes what is required for the vote to pass. Example values are "1/2", "2/3", but other things may show up as this is taken from the source data page.
  • result element: This is a textual element for human consumption, but any of the following substrings indicate a passing vote: "Passed", "Agreed", "Confirmed". "Failed", "Defeated", "Rejected", and "Not Sustained" indicating a failing vote.
  • bill element: If this vote is related to a bill (on passage of bill, on a motion related to the bill, on an amendment to the bill, etc.), this node will be present with session, type, and number attributes. (See Bill XML).
  • amendment element: If this vote is related to an amendment, this node will be present. The ref attribute will be either "bill-serial" and the number attribute indicates the ordinal number of the amendment for the bill given in the bill node. That is, if the number attribute is "5", the amendment referred to is the 5th amendment to the bill referenced in the bill node. If ref is "regular", number contains an identifier of an amendment, such as "s1234".
  • voter element: Once for each vote cast.
    • id attribute: The GovTrack ID of the person who cast the vote. Can be "0" if the ID of the voter could not be determined (but the node is left in so that the totals are correct). Also "0" if VP = "1".
    • VP attribute. Set to "1" if the node represents the vote of the vice president in the case of a tie in the Senate. The id attribute is set to "0". Otherwise the attribute is absent.
    • vote attribute: "+", "-", "0", or "P" indicating an aye, nay, a "no vote" (absence), or a "Present" vote, which is used in quorum calls (and perhaps can show up elsewhere).
    • state and district attributes give the state and, for representatives, their district. Not present for VP nodes or possibly if the ID of the voter could not be determined. (State abbreviations are USPS abbreviations. Districts are "0" for representatives-at-large.)