[iowamark]

Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, who announced Thursday that he will resign soon because of sexual assault and harassment allegations against him, did not participate at Thursday's hearings but voted "no" on all three nominees by proxy.

I didn't know that there was such a thing.

[cotton1706]

Yes, it’s fairly common (in the senate at least). A member can tell the chair (or ranking member) how they would vote if they cannot attend, because they have another committee meeting at the time or whatever.