"passed" or "failed" is incorrectly determined on search results and vote pages

[lukesonnet]

On both the search_list and the individual votes the "passed" or "failed" label is simply determined by whether the yea_count is greater or less than the nay_count. This isn't quite correct.

Some rollcalls have "majority_requirement" which denotes the needed support to pass but not all votes have this. It could also be possible to use the vote_question as a rough guideline for this given we create a dictionary of questions -> needed votes. Again, though, vote_question is not on old rollcalls.

[lukesonnet]

@adamboche, if I look at the description files here: http://adric.sscnet.ucla.edu/rollcall/ I see a column called result. Do we have this field, can we regurgitate it in some way for our front page?

[adamboche]

For recent congresses, there is a field called vote_result. I'm not sure if
there's a way to do this for earlier congresses. For rollcalls that have
it, vote_result can be like 'Passed' or something else, like with
{'question': 'On the Motion to Table', 'vote_result': 'Motion to Table
Agreed To'}

On Sat, Oct 15, 2016 at 8:48 PM, Luke Sonnet notifications@github.com
wrote:

@adamboche https://github.com/adamboche, if I look at the description
files here: http://adric.sscnet.ucla.edu/rollcall/ I see a column called
result. Do we have this field, can we regurgitate it in some way for our
front page?

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[lukesonnet]

Thanks adam, we now replace (passed) and (failed) with vote_result where available and fall back on (passed) or (failed) based on a simple majority.

It may still be worth building a dictionary of if "cloture" in question then (passed) if support > 60 or something so I'm going to leave this issue open.

[adamboche]

I'm not sure we should rely on simple majority. The rule will depend on the
specific vote, and we probably don't want to present information that's
wrong.

Jeff, do you have thoughts on this?

On Oct 16, 2016 1:42 PM, "Luke Sonnet" notifications@github.com wrote:

Thanks adam, we now replace (passed) and (failed) with vote_result where
available and fall back on (passed) or (failed) based on a simple majority.

It may still be worth building a dictionary of if "cloture" in question
then (passed) if support > 60 or something so I'm going to leave this issue
open.

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[JeffreyBLewis]

Right. We can't count on majorities particularly for the senate. At the
same time, I am not sure we have what we need to figure out passage for
the older votes.

Jeff

On Sun, Oct 16, 2016 at 1:52 PM, adamboche notifications@github.com wrote:

I'm not sure we should rely on simple majority. The rule will depend on the
specific vote, and we probably don't want to present information that's
wrong.

Jeff, do you have thoughts on this?

On Oct 16, 2016 1:42 PM, "Luke Sonnet" notifications@github.com wrote:

Thanks adam, we now replace (passed) and (failed) with vote_result where
available and fall back on (passed) or (failed) based on a simple
majority.

It may still be worth building a dictionary of if "cloture" in question
then (passed) if support > 60 or something so I'm going to leave this
issue
open.

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[lukesonnet]

Okay, that is definitely the best choice. We always display the yea and nay counts and only the result if it is in vote_result in the database. Inferring passage on older votes from the question could be opened as a new issue as an enhancement if we wish.