Return to the Guide to the Utah Legislature.
| First session in legislature: | 2023 |
| Most recent year of service for which data are available: | 2025 |
| Total sessions served in Utah House as of 2025: | 3 |
| Total sessions served in Utah Senate as of 2025: | 0 |
I present a variety of statistics about Rep. Joseph Elison's service in the Utah legislature. I highlight differences from chamber averages using little green and red arrows. The number of arrows is statistically determined. More arrows indicate a larger difference compared to the chamber average, in relation to how much diversity there is among legislators on this metric. If all legislators introduce exactly 5 bills, then a legislator who introduces 10 is very different; if legislators vary wildly in how many bills they introduce (but the average is still 5), then a legislator who introduces 10 bills may be less different from average. The standard deviation measures this diversity.
/
Three arrows mean that the legislator is significantly different from average (i.e. at least two standard deviations from the mean, placing the legislator in the top/bottom 2% or so)./ Two arrows mean that the legislator is somewhat different from average (i.e. at least one standard deviation from the mean, placing the legislator in the top/bottom 16% or so)./ One arrow indicates that the legislator is only slightly different from average (i.e. one-third standard deviation from the mean). A single arrow indicates a very small difference; don't make too much of it.| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service summary. Service prior to 2007 (if any) is not shown here. My database goes back only to 2007. | ||||
| Chamber | House | House | House | |
| District | H72 | H72 | H72 | |
| Party | R | R | R | |
| Leadership | None | None | None | |
| Years in chamber | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Years comparison | | | |
|
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
| Bills sponsored (learn more) Bills written and promoted by the legislator in his/her own chamber. | ||||
| Introduced by Elison | 2 | 6 | 4 | |
| Chamber average | 8.1 | 8.5 | 8.0 | |
| Difference | -6.1 | -2.5 | -4.0 | |
| Comparison | | | |
|
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
| Bill passage rate (learn more). What percent of Rep. Elison's sponsored bills pass and are officially "enrolled"? (I ignore whether the governor signed or vetoted the bill.) | ||||
| Bills introduced | 2 | 6 | 4 | |
| Bills passed | 2 | 4 | 2 | |
| Passage rate | 100% | 67% | 50% | |
| Chamber average | 56% | 56% | 59% | |
| Difference | +44 | +11 | -8.7 | |
| Comparison | | | |
|
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
| Bills floor sponsored. A "floor sponsor" is like a secondary sponsor of a bill. After a bill passes the sponsor's chamber, its sponsor needs to find a "floor sponsor" in the other chamber to usher it through the other chamber. | ||||
| Total floor sponsored | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| Chamber average | 3.5 | 3.3 | 4.6 | |
| Difference | -3.5 | -2.3 | -2.6 | |
| Comparison | | | |
|
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
| Missed votes (learn more). Usually missed votes occur because of competing obligations within the legislature, not because the legislator has left the capitol. | ||||
| Missed votes | 6 | 6 | 26 | |
| Total votes held | 803 | 845 | 850 | |
| Absentee rate | 0.7% | 0.7% | 3.1% | |
| Chamber average | 6.4% | 6.8% | 7.1% | |
| Difference | -5.7 | -6.1 | -4.0 | |
| Comparison | | | |
|
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
| "Nay" votes (learn more). Most floor votes pass by overwhelming majorities, since unpopular bills get weeded out long before they reach the floor. As a result, "nay" votes are rare. | ||||
| "Nay" votes | 55 | 37 | 33 | |
| Total votes held | 803 | 845 | 850 | |
| "Nay" rate | 6.8% | 4.4% | 3.9% | |
| Chamber average | 7.1% | 5.7% | 6.2% | |
| Difference | -0.3 | -1.3 | -2.3 | |
| Comparison | == | | |
|
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
| Winning side rate (learn more). What percentage of the time (excluding near-unanimous votes) is the legislator on the winning side of a floor vote? | ||||
| Winning side rate | 77% | 74% | 80% | |
| Chamber average | 69% | 68% | 69% | |
| Difference | +7.5 | +6.5 | +12 | |
| Comparison | | | |
|
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
| Ideology score (NOMINATE method) (learn more). Using W-NOMINATE algorithm developed by Congressional scholars, I calculate each legislator's relative ideology after each General Session. I describe the method here. Scores have no intrinsic meaning. They are only relative: A legislator with a higher score is to the right ideologically of a legislator with a lower scale. Scores may be compared only within a single chamber and a single year. In most years, a conservative Republican will have a score above 0; a score close to 100 is extreme. | ||||
| Contact me for scores. They get misinterpreted often enough that I now provide them only to political scientists. | ||||
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
| Party support score (overall) (learn more). How consistently does Rep. Elison support his/her party? That is, what percentage of the time does the legislator vote with the majority of the other members of his/her party? Scores are usually easily above 90%. | ||||
| Score (overall) | 97% | 97% | 97% | |
| Chamber average | 96% | 96% | 96% | |
| Difference | +1.0 | +0.8 | +1.3 | |
| Comparison | | | |
|
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | ||
| Party support score (party-line only) (learn more). This is the same as the "raw" party support score, but we look only at party-line votes when calculating this. A "party-line" vote occurs when the majority of Democrats votes against the majority of Republicans. Although party-line votes are rare, looking at the legislator's party support score in this setting can be revealing. | ||||
| Score (party-line only) | 94% | 91% | 94% | |
| Chamber average | 88% | 87% | 88% | |
| Difference | +6.4 | +3.3 | +6.6 | |
| Comparison | | | |
|
Only 11 bills sponsored by Rep. Elison have come to a vote. Listed below are all votes held on bills that Rep. Elison sponsored. The votes are sorted by vote margin, with the most divisive votes listed first.
| Year | Sponsor | Bill | Ayes | Nays | Margin (as % of total votes) |
Type of vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Elison | HB0120 | 52 | 23 | 39% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2025 | Elison | HB0464S01 | 20 | 3 | 74% | Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension |
| 2025 | Elison | HB0246S01 | 64 | 3 | 91% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2025 | Elison | HB0246S01 | 70 | 2 | 94% | House/ concurs with Senate amendment |
| 2025 | Elison | HB0464S01 | 69 | 0 | 100% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2025 | Elison | HB0246S01 | 26 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension |
| 2025 | Elison | HB0210S02 | 73 | 0 | 100% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2024 | Elison | HCR001 | 25 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ passed 3rd reading |
| 2024 | Elison | HCR001 | 27 | 0 | 100% | Senate/ passed 2nd reading |
| 2024 | Elison | HCR001 | 73 | 0 | 100% | House/ passed 3rd reading |
