Sole Republican to back George Floyd police bill says it was an ‘accident’

WASHINGTON >> When the House on Wednesday flashed a final vote tally for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would ban chokeholds among other sweeping police policy changes, it was strictly divided along party lines.

But there was one surprise: A single Republican had crossed the aisle to back the measure. Even more shocking was who had cast that vote. Texas Rep. Lance Gooden, a staunchly conservative Donald Trump supporter, seemed an unlikely ally on a bill championed by the left.

Why the change of heart? Gooden quickly jumped on Twitter to explain.

“I accidentally pressed the wrong voting button and realized it too late,” he wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “I have changed the official record to reflect my opposition to the partisan George Floyd Policing Act.”

Gooden’s mishap didn’t affect the fate of the bill, which passed 220 to 112, with two Democrats voting against it. But it was the latest addition to a storied history of distracted or confused lawmakers casting the wrong vote - sometimes with far more consequential results. In 2012 in North Carolina, conservative legislators were pushing to overturn the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill that would legalize fracking. Democratic state Rep. Becky Carney had spent days lobbying against the veto, but when the time came to vote, she accidentally hit yes - and became the clinching vote. Carney immediately scrambled to reverse her vote, but under House rules, votes can’t be changed if they would affect the outcome.