Voting

General Information about the General Assembly: 76-1

VOTING

Members vote on final passage of a bill or resolution using the electronic voting system. They vote either "aye," "nay," or "present" in the Senate and either "aye" or "nay" in the House. If a member is not at his or her desk when the vote is called, the member may signal a vote to the presiding officer and the vote will be electronically recorded. If the electronic voting system is not operating properly, the presiding officer directs the Secretary of the Senate or the Chief Clerk of the House to call the roll alphabetically.

On questions other than final passage for which a vote is to be taken, the vote is by voice vote unless the presiding officer or one member of the Senate or two members of the House call for a division or a record roll call. A division is a nonrecord roll call vote using the electronic voting system.

In the Senate the members must vote at the time a record roll call is taken. In the House, members who have not voted on a question on which a record roll call was taken, may have their votes recorded as if they had voted on the question if they register their votes within ten minutes after the roll call was taken and if their votes do not change the outcome of the roll call vote. House members of conference committees or of the Administrative Rules Review Committee, if those committees are meeting while the House is debating, may record their votes within 30 minutes of the record roll call vote or of the day's adjournment of the House, whichever is earlier, if the vote does not change the final outcome on that question. During these committee meetings, a House page will usually enter the meeting room and record the members' votes.

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Last update: 1995
URL: /DOCS/GA/76GA/LSB/LegHandbook/GeneralInfo/Voting.html
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