What we learned from the 2020 legislator activity data

We recently updated our legislator activity data to include every vote in the two-year session so far, from the 2018 election through March 2020.

The legislature suspended activity in March due to the coronavirus. We will update our data again when they wrap up business this summer.

Here is some of what we learned when we measured legislator activity in 2020.

20 out of 24 senators had perfect attendance

From election day through March 2020, the vast majority of senators were present for every single roll call vote. This is impressive considering they only get paid $100 per year plus mileage.

On average senators were present 99% of the time.

50 out of 400 representatives had perfect attendance

A much smaller share of state representatives participated in every single roll call vote, but their accomplishment is still impressive.

On average each representative was present for 87% of roll call votes.

Sullivan county reps had the highest attendance

On average, representatives from Sullivan county participated in 93% of roll call votes, the highest percentage of any county. Here’s the average representative attendance for roll call votes by county:

Sullivan – 93%
Grafton – 92%
Coos – 89%
Merrimack – 89%
Cheshire – 87%
Hillsborough – 87%
Carroll – 85%
Rockingham – 85%
Strafford – 85%
Belknap – 78%

Partisanship was a little lower in the Senate

There are many different ways to measure partisanship and political polarization, but arguably the most well-known is the “party unity” measure from Congressional Quarterly. Party unity is the percentage of votes in each legislative session in which a majority of one party opposed a majority of the other party. This reflects how often legislators drew a sharp line in the sand based on party, with few legislators crossing party lines.

Last year we found that party unity had reached a twenty-year high in the House of Representatives: 90%. When you look at 2020, party unity is still at 90%.

Party unity decreased a little in the Senate. In 2019 party unity was 76%. In 2020 party unity dropped to 60%.

Click here to read our analysis of partisanship at the close of 2019.

Want to see your legislator's activity in 2019 and 2020?  Find their profile in our elected officials section.