Crowded ballots
And expanding our coverage across the country
One small note before we begin. Legislata is close to having transcripts for nearly every state legislature in the country, about 4 weeks ahead of schedule. All states in dark blue have both chambers covered, and those in light blue have one.
This will make us - I believe - the largest single source of freely available legislative transcripts in the entire country. And with our search functionality having received an upgrade last week, that means you’ll be able to find issues as they’re mentioned from coast to coast.
To me, this milestone is important for two reasons.
The goal had always been to allow people to know what is happening with their government more efficiently and effectively. State-level government is important but fragmented, and getting as many as possible onto one platform now gives us a lot of data to work with.
Last year, this wasn’t possible. AI coding agents have come very far, very fast. It’s a testament to what software is right now that I, with a background in political risk and academia, could accomplish this in a few months. I’m not so AI-pilled that I’ll be using Gas Town for the next phase of development, but it is such a productivity unlock that I can’t wait to see where it can go next.
Election Day Registration hearing
The Special Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions held a hearing on the Election Day Registration question. It was notable for the appearance of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Bill Galvin.
Sec. Galvin mentioned that the book that will be sent to voters this year may be over 100 pages due to the number of questions that will be set to the voters in November.
I remember in 2020 while working on the Ranked Choice Voting question that there was considerable attention on what our argument would be in that book. It was a chance to deliver a message to every voter in the state, assuming they read it.
I have to wonder - and I am assuming that those working on the various campaigns are thinking about this - if the crowded ballot space means that that book is even more important, because it’s the one place where you know you can be visible, or if it’s less important, because many people won’t read something that long.
Ballot questions are already difficult campaigns to run given the short window to connect to voters on and, frequently, no infrastructure from previous cycles to work with. This environment will be testing assumptions about how to usually win.
I don’t know what the answer for winning is, but it’s something I’ll be watching closely about how the campaigns adapt.
This Week in Bluesky
The Iran war was one of the big trends, but we also saw frequent mentions of the Transgender Day of Visibility.
Top post of the week
Top non-federal post of the week
This was also the top performing post, with an engagement-to-follower ratio of 0.17.