With nearly a third of the House members in their first term, Speaker Taylor Barras recently asked House Clerk Butch Speer, “Just review the rules on voting.”
Speer says the basic rules are simple.
“If you’re in the chamber, you are required to vote. If you are not in the chamber, you are not allowed to vote.”
The next rules follow from that, Speer explained.
“No person not a member of the House shall cast a vote for a member. And no member shall cast a vote for another member, unless the member being present in the chamber.”
That brought a question from third-term Representative Nancy Landry of Lafayette.
“But the Senate’s allowed to have someone else vote their machine, correct?” Landry inquired.
“The Senate practice is to allow employees to sit at senator’s desks and vote their machines, yes, ma’am,” Speer replied. “But as I understand how they interpret that rule, they do not let that person sit at the desk if the senator is not in the chamber.”
There’s been a noted reluctance by veteran lawmakers to be present for votes on some controversial bills, believed to be prompted by their desires to keep their legislative scorecards “clean” with organizations like LABI and the Louisiana Family Forum. In addition, a rash of vote-changing in last year’s session -- and the special session earlier this year -- prompted Sulphur Representative Mike Danahay – also in his third term – to ask a series of questions for emphasis.
“Mr. Clerk, if you’re in the chamber, you must vote?” Danahay asked.
“The rules say that a member in the chamber shall vote,” Speer agreed.
“If you are not in the chamber…?”
“The rules say you shall not vote,” Speer answered.
“You shall not vote and you cannot come down at the end of the day and change your vote from absent to whatever?” Danahay asked.
“You’d have to first have to ask to suspend the rule that allowed you to record your vote, even though you were absent from the chamber, because the rule says you cannot vote if you’re not in the chamber,” Speer stated.
And what if they don’t follow the rules?
“If it comes to someone in this chamber’s attention that there has been a violation of the rules, what should be done?” Ruston Representative Rob Shadoin wanted to know.
“You would have to rise at your desk, yell ‘Point of order!’, and get the Speaker’s attention,” Speer explained.
In other words, it’s up to the House members to watch each other and be sure they are following the voting rules.