Vote rates on Hill tallied

Deseret Morning News graphic    Legislative voting rates, 2007

Nobody's perfect, at least when it comes to not missing votes in the Utah Legislature.

Among the least perfect: Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, who attended just 5 percent of his committee votes last session. House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, was second worst, attending just 12 percent of his committee votes.

In fact, leaders of both parties generally had the worst voting rates among Utah's 104 legislators in the 2007 Legislature, both in standing committees and on the House and Senate floors. Floor votes in chambers are generally more important than standing committee votes because floor votes are on final passage of new laws.

"None of us were derelict in our duty," says Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, R-Provo, who made just 32 percent of his possible committee votes (sixth worst in the Legislature) and 73 percent of his floor votes (third worst). "We were at the Capitol. If we weren't voting it was because, as leaders, we were in other (private) meetings," often working out deals on bills, taxes and budgets.

A Deseret Morning News analysis of nearly 2,200 standing committee and floor votes on bills in this year's general session shows voting rates generally are decent, although some members skip plenty. And heavy skipping by party leaders sometimes forces committees to conduct hearings and votes without a majority of members present, sometimes with as few as just two members.

That happens because of an interesting loophole in legislative rules. They do not require committees to count party leaders when calculating whether a quorum is present.

So, for example, the Senate Business and Labor Committee has seven members — but four are party leaders. So a "full" quorum there is considered to be just three of the seven members. A working quorum may be just two members (a majority of those who are not party leaders).

Indeed, just two members were present for six of that committee's 54 votes on bills this year. In another 12 votes, fewer than a real majority of members were present. Overall, its voting attendance rate was just 66 percent, the lowest in the Legislature. That raises questions about how thorough and fair public hearings and the review of bills are, with just two people present.

Valentine said that as Senate president, he would take a look at the make-up of that committee and perhaps remove some leaders. Doing work with just two members "is a concern," said Valentine, who was unaware of the problem.