Roll Call Votes, Texas Style
And this practice is against House Rules; Republicans hold the edge (80-70).
What's interesting -- and a sad commentary on citizen faith in government -- is the number of people at the Lone Star Times who think this is no big deal. I encountered the same attitude when this clip showed up on one of my mailing lists.
Texas legislators have long resisted efforts to make government more transparent.
In April the House took the first step towards a constitutional amendment (voter ratified) that would "[require] an on-the-record, roll-call vote on final passage of all nonceremonial bills." More than 200 organizations and 9-in-10 Texans support the measure, leading to an abrupt about-face from prior stonewalling.
The measure is on the ballot November 6. Passage would have the Texas House of Representatives join 40 other states that routinely record votes, according to the League of Women Voters of Texas.
But what good is a mandatory recorded vote .... if legislators, with tacit approval of House leadership, routinely cast votes for one another when it's not "convenient" to show up in person?
Comments
All this attention on a state legislature, yet when the dem-controlled US Congress ignores a vote on an issue that the Repubs supported…what? Nothing. Silence. Selective outrage does not become you Ms Gill.
Hi Alex,
I guess that there is quite a difference between routinely not showing up to vote (in general), and boycotting a vote for political reasons, when you know that there won’t be any difference because the majority rules… I am not saying it is a good thing. I think people who are elected into office should be present to debate AND vote, whichever party they are from and whatever slim their chances of winning are.
After all, there are examples in History when the words of only one person have changed the opinions of others, thus actually giving to a minority a victory in a Parliament. The French abolition of the capital punishment is one of these cases.
Is this the same TX legislature where the Democrats ran across state lines in order to thwart the will of the people?
Hmm. I don’t see what you are talking about dpb. Can you please explain (I mean with arguments). I am a poor foreigner and sometimes I don’t get cryptic allusions to political events. Thanks in advance…
Hi, Alphast:
DPB is referring to the Democrats leaving the state in 2003 to protest or to slow down a Republican drive to re-draw Congressional district lines.
That said, I don’t know how that event relates to this issue. Republicans remain in control of the Texas legislature and blocked the push for roll-call votes until public opinion was such that they capitulated. And it’s Republican leadership that turns a blind eye to the behavior in the news clip.
Alex, I don’t know what you’re talking about.
I should’ve have been more specific, but it did happen as recently as August. In a Republican motion to deny benefits to illegal aliens, the democrats ruled that it had failed even though when the gavel fell, the electronic score board showed it winning 215-213 along with the word FINAL. How’s that for Democracy, democrat-style?