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Questions, answered

The things everyone asks before they trust a civic app

What is Tally?

Tally shows how your community feels about public issues and how your elected officials act on them. You weigh in on topics, bills, and officials on a 1 to 5 scale; Tally combines everyone’s answers into district-level results and lines them up against real votes.

Is Tally partisan?

No. Tally does not take positions on any issue. It shows the same distributions to everyone: how each party, each area, and the country overall leans, computed the same way for every topic. Red and blue appear only to mark Republican and Democrat.

Who can see my ratings?

No one. Individual answers are never displayed to anyone, including officials. Everything you contribute appears only inside aggregate counts, and aggregates only show once enough people have weighed in that no one is identifiable.

Where do the bills come from?

Straight from official sources: Congress.gov for federal bills and roll calls, the New York State Senate and NYC Council records for state and city legislation. The feed refreshes automatically every hour.

What is the alignment score on an official?

It compares how an official actually voted on issues with how their district weighed in on those same issues. High alignment means their record tracks their constituents; low means it does not. It is computed from recorded votes, not statements.

What is the approval rating on an official?

A direct 1 to 5 weigh-in on the official themselves, shown as a distribution with party and area lenses. It is separate from the alignment score: approval is how people feel, alignment is how the record compares.

Why do I have to sign in and say who I am?

District results only mean something if each person counts once, in the right place. An account keeps it to one voice per person; your city, party, date of birth, sex, and race let results show honest group breakdowns. All of it appears only inside aggregates.

How do I delete my data?

Settings has Download my data (everything as one file) and Clear activity (erases ratings and follows). To remove your account entirely, email the address on the privacy page and we delete it and everything attached.

Is what I see real data?

Bills, votes, and official records are real. Community results are labeled: where enough verified members have weighed in you see live counts, and where the community is still small the app says so instead of pretending.

More on data handling in the privacy policy.