Ghost Voting (Legislators voting while absent) in Mass., Calif., and Texas

[Ian David]

Ghost Voting: Mass. Isn't Alone!

You may recall that the practice of legislative "ghost voting" got some bad press around here recently. In April, Burlington representative (and one-time DLC '100 To Watch' honoree!) Chares A. Murphy cast a series of votes in the House chamber when he was physically on the Virgin Islands. (Speaker DiMasi is getting to the bottom of that, right?)

Well, California -- that copy-cat gay-marrying state -- just got caught copying our sneaky tactic -- and then claiming that they've been doing it for decades.

But now it looks like the Mass. House might have stolen the idea from -- horror of horrors -- the backwater, Bush-loving, Tom DeLay red-staters of Texas. As it turns out, they're a little less subtle about it down in the Lone Star State (or the Austin media is more savvy): check out this KEYE-TV special report with video footage of legislators traipsing around, pushing vote buttons willy-nilly.

Published Jun 11 2008, 02:29 PM by David S. Bernstein

More:
http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/talkingpolitics/archive/2008/06/11/ghost-voting-mass-isn-t-alone.aspx

[elehhhhna]

1. beats not voting at all. why is this so bad? Don't they read the bills?

[Garbo 2004]

2. There have been instances where an absent legislator has had a ghost vote cast against their actual

position on a bill. It's one thing when an absent legislator authorizes a buddy to vote for him/her a certain way on a bill (still against the rules in CA), another when a ghost vote is made without their knowledge & consent and contrary to the way the absent legislator would have voted.

[elehhhhna]

3. More proof you should never trust a Republican with your vote, ghost or otherwise.