A poverty voting scorecard for your local politicians

If you want to see how your elected officials from your state fare with laws regarding poverty, the Sargent Shriver Center on Poverty Law has a good resource. The law center features a Poverty Scorecard website that includes an interactive state-by-state map. You can click on your state to find the details on US Congressmen and Senators and their voting record on bills concerning poverty.

The Sargent Shriver center used a panel of 20 poverty law experts to analyze bills that were voted on in US government. They selected 18 House and 14 Senate votes made during the past year that effect those who live in poverty. Votes cast that the panel feels set the right priorities, or keep adequate funding for poverty aid programs improve the politicians ranking.

According to the scorecard the states that have the politicians with the worst voting record on poverty issues include, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Louisiana and South Carolina. The states with best voting records include New Mexico, Arkansas, West Virginia, New York and Oregon.

The Sargent Shriver Center map is available at Poverty Scorecard.