The Vote Your District Elected Officials (VYDEO I) rankings are based on a two-part formula that ties the partisan complexions of Texas House and Senate districts to the scores that lawmakers received from five conservative organizations that graded them on selective votes cast during the 2009 regular session. The first component compares the partisan ratio of districts directly to voting record scores. The second part of the formula measures how lawmakers' voting records rank in relation to each other from an ideological perspective and compares that to how their districts rank in terms of the percentages of Republican and Democratic voters in them. An alternative VYDEO II analysis ranks House members using a formula that's the same as the second VYDEO I component with the exception of the fact that voting records are scored based on the results of a study by the James A. Baker III Institute of Public Policy at Rice University.

VYDEO RANKING - Texas Legislators voted their districts in 2009 more than those on the chart below them based on a combination of two separate formulas that measure voting records in relation to the partisan makeup of the districts they represent. The legislators who are ranked number one for each party voted their districts more than those who are lower on the list. The VYDEO Ranking is based on the the Score/Ratio Average, which is the VYDEO Score plus VYDEO Ratio divided by 2. Examples: A GOP legislator who represents one of most heavily Republican districts and has one of the most conservative voting records will rank high. Republicans legislator with relatively moderate voting records will rank higher if they represent potential swing districts where 65 percent of the voters or less have backed the GOP's statewide slates in the last three election cycles. A GOP lawmaker with a moderate voting record in a heavily Republican district will rank lower. GOP legislators with highly conservative voting record will rank low if they represent districts that are less than 65 percent Republican. A Democrat with a liberal voting record will rank high if he or she represents a heavily Democratic district. But Democrats with relatively liberal voting records in districts where a majority of the voters are Republicans will rank low.

DISTRICT INDEX - The average share of the vote received by all statewide candidates in 2008, 2006 and 2004 for the party with a majority of the voters in the district. A district with an index of R+60 is one where the Republican statewide candidates won 60 percent of the vote on average during the last three election cycles. A 50-50 district is one where the statewide candidates for the two major parties received between 49.5 percent and 50.4 percent of the vote on average from 2004 to 2008. The District Index is based on information compiled by the Texas Legislative Council.

VOTING RECORD - The average score received from the Heritage Alliance, the Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, the Texas Association of Business, the Texas Eagle Forum and the Young Conservatives of Texas.based on selective votes in the 2009 regular session.

DISTRICT RANKING - The districts with the highest Republican and Democratic indexes are ranked number one while the districts with the lowest indexes for each major party party are ranked last in this catergory.

CONSERVATIVE RANKING - For House Republicans, the highest voting record score for the most conservative votes is ranked number one while the lowest voting record score for the least conservative votes is ranked 76th. The House Speaker isn't included because he rarely votes. For Senate Republicans, the highest voting record score is ranked first and the lowest voting record score is ranked 19th.

LIBERAL RANKING - For House Democrats, the lowest voting record score for the most liberal votes is ranked number one while the highest voting record score for the least liberal votes is ranked 73rd. For Senate Democrats, the lowest voting record score is ranked first and the highest is ranked 12th.

VYDEO SCORE - The difference between the Conservative Ranking and the District Ranking for Republicans and the Liberal Ranking and District Ranking for Democrats. The lowest numbers are best. Example: A Republican who represents a district that has a District Index of R+79 and ranks number one in District Ranking as a result would have a VYDEO Score of 34 if they had the 35th most conservative Voting Record. (35-1 = 35). The same Republican would have a perfect VYDEO Score of 00 if they had the most conservative Voting Record and ranked 1st in the Conservative Ranking category as a result (1-1 = 0). A Democrat with a District Index of D+84 would rank first in District Ranking and have a VYDEO Score of 36 if they had the 37th most liberal voting record. (37-1 = 36). A Democrat would have a perfect VYDEO Score of 00 if they represented the most Democratic district and had the most liberal voting score.

VYDEO RATIO - For Republicans, the Voting Record score minus the District Index. Example 1: A Republican with a Voting Record score of 85 and a District Index of R+70 has a VYDEO Ratio of C+15. (85-70 = 15). That Republican's voting record was 15 points more conservative than his district based on the ratio of Democratic and GOP voters in it. Example 2: A Republican with a Voting Record score of 57 and a District Index of R+66 has a VYDEO Ratio of C-09. (57-66 = -9.) The voting record was 9 points less conservative than his district based on the ratio of Democratic and ti Republican voters. The ideal number in this category is 00, which a Republican legislator would have if he or she represented a district with a District Index of R+66 and a Voting Record of 66.

For Democrats in districts with a majority of Democratic voters based on the District Index, the VYDEO Ratio is the Voting Record score subtracted from 100 minus the District Index. Example 1: A Democrat with a Voting Record score of 21 and a District Index of D+68 has a VYDEO Ratio of L+11 (100-21 = 79-68 = 11). So that Democrat's voting record was 11 points more liberal than the district he or she represents based on the partisan ratio. Example 2: A Democrat with a Voting Record score of 20 and a District Index of D+84 has a VYDEO Ratio of L-04 (100-20 = 80-84 = -4). So that Democrat's voting record was 4 points less liberal than the district she represents.

For Democrats in districts with a majority of Republican voters, the VYDEO Ratio is the conservative Voting Record score subtracted from 100 minus 50 plus the amount of the District Index over 50. Example: A Democrat with a Voting Record score of 34 and a District Index of R+59 has a VYDEO Ratio of L+25 (100-34 = 66-50 = 16+9 = 25). That Democrat's voting record was 25 points more liberal than the GOP-leaning district that he represents.

SCORE/RATIO AVERAGE - The sum of the VYDEO Score and the VYDEO Ratio divided by two. For the purposes of calculating Score/Ratio Average, the same number from the VYDEO Ratio is used regardless of whether it has a plus or minus sign in front of it. Example: A legislator with a VYDEO Score of 38 and a VYDEO Ratio of C-11 has a Score/Ratio Average of 24.5 (38+11 = 49 divided by 2 = 24.5). A lawmaker with a VYDEO Score of 38 and VYDEO Ratio of C+11 would have the same Score/Ratio Average.