November 20, 2022 — One discovery we made in the Maine Senate and House data is that between 2017 and 2022 average voting polarization in the Maine Senate and House has increased from 60% to almost 80%. Sadly, but unsurprisingly, over this period, the percentage of bipartisan votes, where most Democrats and Republicans vote together, decreased from 19% to 10%, and the percentage of polarized votes increased from 32% to 61%. Some, but not necessarily all, of this increase is due to Republican legislators starting to vote more unanimously (like their Democratic colleagues).
Our website (http://dash.democracygps.org) allows visitors to see for themselves which bills were most and least polarizing...
