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AlabamaThey just got rid of their faux marble-texture. Unfortunately they didn't get rid of their byzantine cookie procedure.
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AlaskaPlaceholder events put on the legislative calendar
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Arizona"Prime Prime Sponsor" is a thing that is different from "Prime Sponsor" and also different from "CoSponsor"
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ArkansasBulk data available as pipe-delimited data (with a few missing fields that you still need to scrape for)
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CaliforniaBulk data available as a mysql dump
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ColoradoSo many tables in so many PDFs
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ConnecticutPrevious years' bills randomly appear in the wrong year's bulk data
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DelawareData hardcoded in HTML hardcoded in Javascript hardcoded in HTML. But at least IT calls you back. UNLIKE YOU, JEFF FROM INDIANA!!!
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FloridaLegislators are allowed to change their vote after a roll call
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GeorgiaVery finickey about repeated accesses
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Hawaii"Yes with reservations" is an allowable vote
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IdahoA legislature can name a temporary substitute if he/she is unavailable
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IllinoisHouse speaker never referred to by name so you have to look up who it is at a given time
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IndianaAPI. But in order to get a key, you need to call Jeff from IT. Jeff does not return voicemails.
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IowaThere are two different formats for bill sponsor lists, seemingly random which one is used
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KansasFive (and counting) acceptable date formats for votes
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KentuckyList of bills is literally just a list of numbers
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LouisanaTons of asp.net inscrutable ctl00 element ids
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MaineNonvoting tribal representatives
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MarylandHas a habit of listing the same vote twice
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MassachusettsInstead of numbers, districts have names like "Second Plymouth and Bristol" NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH "Second Bristol and Plymouth"
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MichiganHouse and Senate have totally unrelated sites
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Minnesotafour (and counting) acceptable formats for dates on bill actions
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MississippiXML bulk data
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MissouriInformation about a single bill continues for arbitrary numbers of rows in a table
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MontanaSometimes committee rosters are HTML, sometimes PDF
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NebraskaUnicameral legislature
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Nevadaso much random whitespace in html text!
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New Hampshire
Site crashes when you scrape it and they generally update bulk data only when you ask nicely. (but at least they pick up the phone. LOOKING AT YOU, JEFF FROM INDIANA!)
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New JerseyBulk data as microsoft access file
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New MexicoLieutentant governor allowed to vote
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New YorkSenate and assembly have completely different sites; Senate has an API, not house
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North CarolinaIs extremely average
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North DakotaThey produced this image (next slide)
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OhioUndocumented API, no key needed, JEFF FROM INDIANA
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OklahomaThere are often subcommittees called "test"
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OregonLots of surprise unicode whitespace
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PennsylvaniaAddress, phone and office hours are in every imaginable order and format
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Rhode IslandBulk data provided in excel file
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South Carolina
Must pass headers to emulate a browser
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South DakotaBill actions and actors smushed together in a single text field and have to be parsed out
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TennesseeSome documents are stored as images
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Texashas weird procedural rule where you can't actually find out the final vote on a bill
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UtahSenate produces a nice (but undocumented) JSON file. House JSON file missing most information.
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VermontAnother undocumented API with no key needed ARE YOU LISTENING JEFF FROM INDIANA?
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VirginiaThe possible values for a Senator's vote are "yea", "nay" and "rule 36"
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WashingtonSOAP api
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West VirginiaWordperfect docs
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WisconsinInfinite scroll hides useful things like "next" links unless you disable javascript
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Wyomingsession met for only a month in 2016
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DCuses names as uniqe keys (what could possibly go wrong?)
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Puerto Ricoin their official language: spanish
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