Recipients of the LINCS/NALIT Online Democracy Award

The Online Democracy Award recognizes state legislative websites that stand out for making democracy user-friendly.

2012

Hawaii Legislature
The Hawaii Legislature's website won the 2012 Online Democracy Award. The judges were impressed by the website’s consistent, clean and attractive layout; simple navigation, extensive information and good search capability; extensive educational and jargon-free resources; features that invite citizen involvement; easy-to-find links to calendars, caucus sites, and committee hearings. View Press Release.

2011

Florida Senate

The Florida Senate took home the 2011 Online Democracy Award for providing a simple, clean and fresh design, easy navigation, and a wealth of information for constituents and the public. Some of the other notable winning features of the website include a bill tracking feature,detailed background and contact information on each legislator, educational materials, use of social media widgets and RSS feeds. This is the first time a legislative chamber has been awarded this national honor. The press release provides additional details.

2010

Washington Legislature

The Washington Legislature's website was recognized for providing extensive information that is easy to find and understand.  The website's notable features include excellent search functionality, detailed explanations on web pages about available functions and features, Spanish language translations and printer-friendly versions of web pages.  The site also was designed to be universally accessible and includes prominent ADA information.  See the award description and Press Release.

2009

Tennessee General Assembly

Tennessee's website stood out for its ease of navigation, depth of content and openness, and availability of information to the public. Key features of Tennessee's website that contributed to this year's award include: prominent educational resources; well-organized information; a simple, fresh design; integration of archived streaming video clips with agendas and bill information.  See the award description, a video of the award being presented at the 2009 Legislative Summit and the award Press Release.

2008
Texas Legislature

The Texas Legislature's website was honored for its wealth of information on the members’ pages, search capabilities, streaming video and audio services and an outreach to kids. In addition, this site is easy to navigate, making it friendly to the novice user and valuable for the experienced user. See Press Release.

2007
New Jersey Legislature

New Jersey's website stood out for its ease of navigation, depth of content and openness and availability of information for the public.

2006
Minnesota Legislature

Minnesota's website was recognized for its ease of navigation, advanced searchability and multitude of content.

2005
Utah State Legislature

The Utah State Legislature was honored for its outstanding achievement in using design, content and technology to bring democracy closer to the citizens of Utah. The selection committee specifically noted the site's use of RSS feeds and its audio and video technologies.

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