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When the Idaho Legislature is in session, hundreds of bills move through the statehouse. Some strengthen our constitutional rights. Others expand government overreach. Many fall somewhere in between, or have nothing to do with the principles spelled out in the Idaho GOP Platform.
Our scorecard’s mission is simple: help Idahoans quickly understand how each piece of legislation aligns with the Idaho Republican Party platform. But with 700+ bills potentially showing up in a session, how do we actually make that happen?
We’ve built a system that combines artificial intelligence with consistent, objective standards. Here’s how it works.
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Starting with the Source
Every rating begins with the actual bill text. Not a summary, not a news article, not someone’s interpretation. We pull the full legislative language directly from the Idaho Legislature’s official documents.
But reading a bill isn’t as straightforward as reading a newspaper. Legislative text is full of references to existing code, and the real substance is often buried in what’s being added or removed from current law. That’s why our system highlights the changes: strikethrough text shows what’s being deleted from existing law, and underlined text shows what’s being added. This lets our AI (and you) see exactly what each bill actually does, not just what its sponsors say it does.
This is an upgrade from the 2025 way of doing it. In 2025, we fed the AI the entire bill manually and had it rate the bill, strikethroughs, underlines, and all. Weeks later, when we decided we needed a page to explain the ratings, we asked it to write a summary of the rating (based on the initial rating AI generated and the summary of the bill provided by BillTrack50, but not the entire bill text itself). That has changed due to our new automation.
Measured Against the Platform
We don’t rate bills based on gut feelings or political winds. Every bill is measured against specific principles drawn from the Idaho Republican Party platform. These aren’t vague generalities. They’re concrete metrics covering issues like prior restraint, substantive due process, fiscal responsibility, property rights, Second Amendment protections, election integrity, and more.
When our system analyzes a bill, it evaluates the legislation against each of these principles and determines whether the bill supports, opposes, or has no impact on that particular value. A bill that strengthens property rights gets positive marks in that category. A bill that expands government spending without accountability gets negative marks. A bill about highway bridge maintenance that has nothing to do with platform principles? It gets a neutral rating because not every piece of legislation aligns with the platform one way or another, and we’re not going to pretend otherwise.
The AI Advantage
Here’s where it gets interesting, and here’s what is new in 2026. We will be using multiple artificial intelligence systems to analyze each bill. Not one AI. Several, working independently.
Why multiple? Each AI brings slightly different strengths and perspectives to the analysis. By running every bill through multiple systems, we get a form of consensus. When the AIs agree on how a bill impacts the platform metrics, that rating is published. When they disagree, the bill is rated neutral rather than publishing a questionable score.
This approach removes the possibility of bias creeping into our ratings. There’s no editorial board deciding which bills matter. There’s no political pressure influencing scores. The AI systems simply read the bill text, compare it against the platform principles, and report what they find. If the bill doesn’t clearly affect the platform or the analysis is uncertain, it’s rated neutral. Period.
And yes, this technology costs real money. Every bill we analyze incurs costs from multiple AI providers. It’s not free to run, but we believe it’s worth it to provide Idahoans with accurate, consistent, and timely information about what their legislature is doing.
What the Scores Mean
Our scoring is straightforward. Each bill receives a total score based on how it measures up across all our platform metrics.
A positive score means the bill generally aligns with Idaho Republican platform principles. A negative score means it generally works against those principles. A zero or neutral score means the bill either has no significant impact on platform issues, or the AI systems couldn’t reach consensus on its impact.
We also show you the breakdown, which specific principles the bill supports or opposes. That way, you can see exactly why a bill received its score and make your own judgment about whether you agree.
Transparency Over Spin
The Idaho Republican Platform Scorecard is not here to tell you how to think. It is here to give you information that’s hard to find anywhere else, presented clearly and measured against a consistent standard.
The media (or social media pundits) pick and choose which bills to cover, often with their own slant. Legislators and lobbyists spin every bill to serve their interests. Our system just measures legislation against the platform and reports what it finds. No editorializing, no favoritism, no agenda beyond the platform itself.
Will you agree with every rating? Maybe not. But you’ll always know exactly how we arrived at our conclusions, and you’ll have access to the same source material we used to get there.
Get Ratings Delivered to Your Inbox
Don’t want to check the website every day? Sign up for our email updates and get daily bill ratings sent straight to your inbox during the legislative session. You’ll see exactly which bills were rated, how they scored, and why. It’s the easiest way to stay informed without having to track down the information yourself. Click here to sign up!
Help Us Keep the Lights On
This project runs on volunteer time and donor support. The AI systems we use aren’t free, and neither is the infrastructure that keeps the scorecard running throughout the legislative session.
If you find value in what we’re doing, if knowing how bills align with Republican principles helps you be a more informed citizen, voter, or activist, we’d be grateful for your support. Every donation helps us keep analyzing every bill, every session, without cutting corners.
We’ll be watching every bill so you don’t have to.
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