
	Chris Mulick has worked for the Herald since 1998 and has served as the statehouse correspondent covering state government and politics since 2000. He works year-round out of the Herald's Olympia bureau on the state Capitol campus. Have a question? Send Chris an e-mail and he'll answer the best questions regularly.

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Wednesday, Mar. 19, 2008

Missed votes report tells a familiar story

Washingtonvotes.org released its annual Missed Votes Report this afternoon and the storyline is similar to past years. The leaders in this category were either in leadership or sick. Most were sick.

That’s certainly true for Rep. Steve Hailey, R-Mesa. He tops the list with 669 missed votes this session because he missed virtually the entire session having been diagnosed with colon cancer. He stayed home to receive chemotherapy treatment.

Rep. Bill Eickmeyer, D-Belfair, missed 230 votes. His explanation?

“I was out with a lung infection which was complicated by a residual bacterial invasion,” he reported to Washingtonvotes.org. “This kept me out the entire next to last week of session.”

Any questions?

You can find the online database here. Know that, until you change it, it’s currently set up to check for votes missed during the past two sessions.

A couple things should be said about missed votes. First, Washingtonvotes.org defines a missed vote to include all excused and unexcused absences. I don’t have the data in front of me but generally, most absences are excused.

And when they’re not excused it’s often because a colleague either forgot to request a member be excused or didn’t realize they were missing. I bet if you could crunch the numbers in such a way you’d find most unexcused absences occur at the beginning of floor sessions as members are making their way to the floor, particularly in the Senate where time if filled with routine gubernatorial appointments.

Legislators generally go to great lengths to avoid missed votes, knowing they could be used against them in a campaign.

One of the most hazardous places to stand in Olympia is the pathway between the Senate floor and the caucus rooms during a floor session. Senators quite literally come sprinting in their wingtips and pumps (or cowboy boots in some cases) when their name is called to register a vote.

It’s also worth noting that votes often come in bunches. That’s particularly true in the final two weeks of session when lawmakers are voting on bills and then voting on them again as they bounce back and forth between chambers to resolve differences.

That’s how Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, explains having missed 70 votes. He was sick on one such day.

And leaders tend to “miss” more votes than others because they’re often negotiating compromises to bills when session starts approaching its climax.

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