Posted on 12/05/2004 8:17:52 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
AUSTIN — Rep. Larry Evans died Aug. 7, 1991, but later that day the Houston Democrat was recorded as voting three times on the Texas House floor.
Presumably, colleagues pushed the vote buttons on his desk.
At the time, House Speaker Gib Lewis called the incident embarrassing and urged lawmakers to "strictly observe proper parliamentary procedures in order to ... (assure) our constituents that their representatives are in fact representing them."
"It's hard to ride herd on 149 members of the House when you have to trust them and their integrity at the same time," Lewis said.
If a movement to require recording all legislative votes succeeds, the public record could still be imprecise as long as House members continue the forbidden tradition of casting votes for colleagues not at their desks.
"It does happen," said first-term Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola. "I guess it developed because it's practical."
House members' desks have buttons that usually can be punched by anyone within reaching distance during non-voice votes — green for "yes," red for "no" or white to take no position.
The state's 31 senators don't have vote buttons on their desks. Senators vote by voice or relay their position by finger motions or notes.
Under House rules, a member must be on the floor or in an adjacent room or hallway to vote. Absent lawmakers' machines must be locked so no one can use them.
And any member found guilty of knowingly voting on behalf of another member — sometimes called "ghost" voting — is subject to discipline deemed appropriate by the House. But nobody in memory has been disciplined for it.
Bob Kelly, who stepped down in 2000 after 22 years as House parliamentarian, said the "courtesy" of members voting for each other reflects the demands on legislators to leave their desks to meet constituents and lobbyists.
Kelly, now a lobbyist, said that "having a record on every vote taken isn't ever going to stop that. I don't see why it needs to."
Lobbyist Ron Hinkle, the House sergeant-at-arms from 1983 through 1991, said members punch each other's buttons with no ill intent.
"Members can self-govern themselves," Hinkle said. "They take their jobs very seriously."
But ghost voting "can be badly abused," said Tom "Smitty" Smith of Public Citizen's Texas office. His Capitol career traces to 1983, when he was a legislative aide in the House.
"It could and it should disappear," he said.
Felton West, a retired reporter for the defunct Houston Post, recalled that in the 1970s a member was indicated as voting while vacationing at a Mexican seaside resort. "There's nothing to discourage it unless somebody is just watching it all the time," West said.
About a month before Evans died, two House members were caught by a TV camera punching in votes for Rep. Randy Pennington, who was in Houston. Pennington said later that colleagues often voted for him when he was elsewhere in the Capitol, adding, "You can train a monkey to punch a button."
House rules allow the speaker and members to request that close votes be verified, a procedure that always catches ghost votes. A clerk reads members' names aloud to confirm their presence and vote. Absent members are then identified and their votes stricken.
Technology could also give members a way to reduce ghost voting.
The Oregon House keeps four fingerprint recognition machines on its floor, enabling members to register votes away from their desks. About one-third of its 60 members have taken advantage of it, a clerk said.
Ghost balloting in the Texas House probably dates to the installation of mechanical voting machines eight decades ago, a former sergeant-at-arms said.
"They didn't get caught, at least very seldom," said B.L. Parker, sergeant-at-arms in the 1961 legislative session.
Still, he said, absent members ran the risk of having someone else cast a vote they might have trouble defending back home.
"If you're not going to be there to take care of your business, somebody is going to," Parker said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- wselby@express-news.net
Ghost voting Ping!
"It does happen," said first-term Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola. "I guess it developed because it's practical."
Note that they quote a republican. Looks like this guy does not have a clear definition of what is right and what is wrong.
On the other hand, the article is most likely written by a liberal......consider the source.
They've got to end this practice. It's shameful.
Dead democrats voting? Happens in Chicago all the time.
Democrats can't let something like "death" keep them from voting
The system also does a good job of keeping abuses in check - every member knows that if he takes advantage of the situation and votes differently than asked, the other member he wronged will return the favor on a day when he's off in comittee.
Get off your high horse. There's nothing "wrong" going on here - it's a well established system that's been going on in the Texas House for half a century or more to accomodate the constraints of a crowded legislative agenda. Members leave their keys in the voting device and pass their neighbors a list of the way they intend to vote on all the bills that afternoon so they can attend comittee hearings without missing key votes (you probably wouldn't like it if enough Republicans were busy in comittee hearings that the Democrats got a temporary floor majority and defeated our bills that afternoon, would you?). There's virtually no fraud that anybody gets away with because (a) if somebody is voted wrong they simply ask for the record to be corrected when they get back later that day and (b) the guy who votes them wrong knows that the favor will be returned when he's in comittee.
He obviously has a high opinion of his colleagues.
Great! Next time I have to leave during an election, I'll just tell my wife how I want to vote and she can vote for me!/sarcasm
Yeah, because he was directing moralistic invective against a decent Republican state rep for honestly explaining a system of procedure that the said poster did not understand.
So if the vote is close, these "ghost votes" (clever softening of the word FRAUDULENT, don't you thing?) may change make of break a proposal?
The system's been in place for over 50 years but I can't recall many if any votes where that ever happened. And no - it is not fraudulent. The legislators give direct instructions to other legislators on the floor about how they wish to vote for all of the bills coming up that day. As I said, every legislator knows there will be repercussions for hitting the wrong switch for his buddy so they simply don't do it.
Then later when the legislators return form vacation they could get the legislation pulled or reversed?
They don't return from vacation. They return from committee hearings. Each legislagtor has a key that activates the voting buttons on his desk. If he chooses to leave the key in and instruct the person he shares a desk with how to vote him for the rest of the day it is his perogative, and it also lets him go to comittee hearings where the real work is done.
I think a good idea is to loan your friend your roll call key with instructions how to vote, but to allow anyone to do it is indefensible.
They don't allow just anyone to do it. Go visit the Texas capitol some day. They all have deskmates that they share with. The deskmates cover for each other where one can stay on the floor and the other three can go to comittee. If you're going to comment about the system they use at least take the time to educate yourself about how it works. It is obvious that you have not.
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