California Report Card
The California Report Card (CRC) is a mobile-friendly website that lets Californians help shape state government. People can grade California on six topics from A+ to F and suggest new issues for attention. It aims to boost public participation and connect residents with their elected officials.
Developed by UC Berkeley’s CITRIS Data and Democracy Initiative and Prof. Ken Goldberg, with California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the CRC started in January 2014 as a new form of online democracy. It builds on earlier ideas from Opinion Space and the World Bank’s Citizen Report Card, using polling, idea ranking, and visual displays to show what Californians think. The CRC moved these ideas to mobile and added the citizen report card concept.
How it works: users first rate the six current topics, then share their ZIP code and enter an online “café” where they can read and discuss others’ ideas. Each idea is shown as a mug, and participants can read, vote on importance, and add their own suggestions. The system is designed to highlight well-supported suggestions and keep ratings balanced.
Version 1.0 launched on January 28, 2014. By June 2014, more than 8,000 people across California had given about 25,000 grades. The team planned a fall 2014 update and a Spanish option.
Version 2.0 officially released on September 23 (National Voter Registration Day). It is bilingual (English and Spanish) to reach the roughly 30% of Californians who speak Spanish at home, with faster translation, a refreshed design, and broader accessibility.
The CRC runs on the CAfe platform—Collective Assessment and Feedback Engine—led by Ken Goldberg’s team at UC Berkeley, with Newsom’s support. The project envisions broader uses, including disaster readiness and other public-facing applications, to help the public directly inform government decisions.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 20:59 (CET).