It's Not Easy To Find Out How Legislators Voted

This probably looks a bit intimidating, but Alaskan readers should take a bit of time here.  This walks you through step by step.  I'm really trying to seduce as many of you as possible into playing with BASIS and finding out what your legislature is up to.  [Update:  Also be sure to check out Alaska Education Update's comment below on getting to the Journal page from bill search.]

BASIS (the legislative website) has a lot of information. One thing I've looked for and failed to find is how legislators voted. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to pull up a bill and see how they voted? Or to pull up a specific legislator and see how he or she voted on a list of different bills? But I couldn't find that sort of information.

So I asked a BASIS technician and he confirmed what I'm looking for just isn't there.  You need to go to the House and Senate Journals which are the minutes of each day's floor session. That, he said, is the only place on BASIS where you can find the voting records.  You have to look, day by day, bill by bill.

You can find these a couple of ways.  Here's the easiest for me.


BASIS - HOUSE JOURNAL

This is the "Bills & Laws" tab on BASIS (see the white tab on top.)

If you click on the picture, it will link you to that page (the url is in red text.)    Go ahead, click on the image. This is your government.  You believe in democracy, so participate!  Use right click (Mac users use the control key) and open a new tab or new window.  Then go to Journal Text Display (circled on the right.)  That gets you to this page:

Leave House Journal marked.  Then slide down to the bottom of that list to
"Journal Date Range from"   and put in the dates that you want.  I've got it set for
040510.  I know, it's a little clunky, but at least this one is easy to figure out.    That will get you to the House Journal for April 5, 2010 which looks like this:

If you scroll down to page 2021 you'll find the Bills with Third Readings.  (They can't vote until the bill has been read for the third time - it's in the State Constitution.)  Here's the vote on CSHB (Committee Substitute for House Bill) 348.

And that tells you who voted yes and who voted no. 

Now, I've put up yesterday's House Journal because today's isn't up yet.


CRAZY BLOGGERS

There is another way to find out how people voted - find a blogger who posts the votes.  But this service - posting pictures of the votes - is probably a one day event. Here's today's House Votes.

HB 355	CRIMINAL FINES FOR ORGANIZATIONS	PASSD(H) RECON NTCE	04/06/10

This passed, but some members said they hadn't read it, so they voted for it, then voted for reconsideration.  That means they can bring it up again tomorrow if, after reading it, they have a problem.

This one has to go to the Senate from here.  It's day 78, so there are 12 days left for it to pass or die. Since this is the second session of the 26th Legislature (two a year beginning 52 years ago), whatever doesn't get passed, dies, and has to begin again from scratch in the 27th Legislature. 

HB 357AK RAILROAD CORP. LAND SALES 3RD RDG,4/7 CAL(H) 04/06/10

Sorry, I didn't figure out I should take all these pictures until the next one, so I don't have this vote.

SB 307

SHELTERS FOR RUNAWAY MINORS

PASSED (H)

04/06/10

This, as I understood it, closes a loophole in State law that will allow Covenant House to qualify for federal funding.

Open means the vote is not yet finished.  When it is closed, it says that in red as you'll see in one of the other pictures below.  Here I think Doogan was out of the room so he doesn't show as having voted.  I don't recall if he managed to vote before it closed.  But obviously his vote wasn't terribly important here. 



SJR 27FED. FUNDING: DOMESTIC SEAFOOD MARKETING PASSED (H) 04/06/10

SCR 12FETAL ALCOHOL SPECTRUM DISORDERS DAY PASSED (H) 04/06/10

The day will be 9/9/10 - to remind women not to drink during the nine months they are pregnant. 

SCR 13SUPPORTING SENIOR CAREGIVERS PASSED (H) 04/06/10

You can see the first two are legislation that originated in the House because they begin with H.  The rest are items that have made it through the Senate already and the begin with S.


ONE MORE WAY TO SEE THE VOTES

There is one more place you could get this information if you really needed it right away:  from Gavel to Gavel.

You can watch the broadcast originating from KTOO in Juneau.  They usually play it close to live (sometimes it's a little delayed if another meeting goes over.)  They usually play the House floor a second time. (It's scheduled for 6pm today.)  But you'd have to look quick if you wanted to know how each person voted. Here's the Broadcast Schedule page below.

The very bottom line shows it was scheduled at 10:30 today.  On the actual page you could scroll down and see it's scheduled again for 6:05pm (but remember the schedule changes as things happen.)  To find out where you can watch it - it the Where to Tune link (see the red mark on the left of the page above.)  It shows where people can see this on cable around the state.

You could also listen to the audio of the Floor Session, but unless they did a roll call vote, that wouldn't tell you how each representative voted.