Tennessee Votes is a great example of Transparency in action

For those of you who may not be aware, The Tennessee Center for Policy Research is sponsoring a fantastic tool for Tennesseans. It’s called Tennessee Votes and is a great way for everyday, non-lawyer types to get notification of, keep track of changes to and engage in dialogue about the bills being introduced in the Tennessee Legislature.

You will need to register but the process is both fast and free. Once registered and signed in you can browse legislation by general type (education, taxes, firearms, etc…) and see the bill number, its sponsor, House or Senate designation and read a short understandable description of what the bill is intended to do. You can follow a specific bill, comment on it, watch the amendments to it and more. In short, Tennessee Votes is one of the finest tools ever for making the legislative process more open and accessible to citizens, taxpayers and voters.

This is the project’s first year in Tennessee although it has been going successfully in Michigan, from which all 50 states will eventually import the concept, for several years. The program was recently upgraded, as well. Nonetheless, I’m sure enterprising Tennesseans will think up an improvement or two for the process. If you have a moment, drop Drew Johnson at TCPR a quick thank you for providing this invaluable service to Tennessee.

Now go be informed!