Taking reps’ roll call vote attendance
There were no roll call votes in the House or Senate last week. This week, Beacon Hill Roll Call reports local representatives’ roll call attendance records for the 2021 session. No more roll calls are planned in the House until January 2022.
The House held 121 roll calls in 2021. Beacon Hill Roll Call tabulates the number of roll calls on which each representative was present and voting, and then calculates that number as a percentage of the total roll call votes held. That percentage is the number referred to as the roll call attendance record.
The vast majority of the 159 representatives are not in the House chamber during a session because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sources tell Beacon Hill Roll Call that they have seen as few as 12 members in the chamber and as many as 40. The remainder are watching the session from their home or business and voting remotely.
Here’s how the remote voting system works: Eight appointed monitors are required to be present in the House chamber and are each given the task of recording the votes of about 20 members who are watching the session remotely from their homes or business offices. Each monitor has their 20 members on a conference call and fills out a form indicating how each member voted. The sheets are given to the court officers who then give them to the House Clerk who verifies that the correct totals have been recorded on the sheet and that the sheet is signed by the monitor. The assistant clerk records the yeas and nays in the roll call computer, which activates the green (voted “yes”) or red (voted “no”) lights on the electronic roll call board.
Members participating remotely then have the opportunity to see on the broadcast how they are recorded so that they can verify that their vote is recorded accurately. The tally is then displayed on the roll call board and the presiding officer announces the totals and the result of the vote.
If a member wants to speak on an issue under consideration, they leave the conference call temporarily. Using a different telephone, they call into a line that patches them into the debate. Their voice is heard in the House chamber and by those watching the broadcast online.
In the House, 86.7% (138 representatives out of 159) did not miss any roll calls and have 100% roll call attendance records while 13.3% (21 representatives out of 159) have missed one or more roll calls.
The representative who missed the most roll calls is Rep. Meghan Kilcoyne, D-northboro, who missed 15, resulting in an 87.6% attendance record.
Rounding out the top six representatives who have missed the most roll calls are Reps. Patrick Kearney, D-scituate who missed eight roll calls (93.3% attendance record); David Leboeuf, D-worcester, who missed six roll calls (95% attendance record); Chynah Tyler, D-roxbury, who missed four roll calls (96.6% roll call attendance record); and Reps. Annmargaret Ferrante, Dgloucester, and Tami Gouveia, D-acton, who both missed three roll calls (97.5% roll call attendance record).
Beacon Hill Roll Call contacted these six legislators and asked each one for a comment on his or her attendance record. Only four responded: Kilcoyne, Kearney, Ferrante and Gouveia. Tyler and Leboeuf did not respond to repeated requests for a comment.
“I was forced to miss one full formal session because I sat for the Massachusetts Bar Exam at the end of July,” Kilcoyne said. “My absence is recorded in the House Journal along with the explanation for the missed votes on that one day. The journal also reflects how I would have voted had I been present on that day. Other than the one day I was forced to miss, I have a perfect voting record.”
“As a lieutenant in the United States Navy Reserve, I report for active duty at least for two weeks a year, sometimes longer depending on the nation’s needs,” Kearney said.
“I have been undergoing treatment at Dana Farber,” Ferrante said.
“I take my role as a state representative very seriously, so when I experienced technical difficulties in dialing in during one of our formal sessions, I quickly alerted the clerk,” Gouveia said. “While my roll call vote for quorum was unable to be recorded, I did record two votes in favor of the two bills before the House that day.”
ALSO UP ON BEACON HILL
REQUIRE SCHOOLS TO TEACH ABOUT GENOCIDE — The House and Senate, on a voice vote without a roll call, approved and sent to Gov. Charlie Baker a bill requiring public schools to educate middle and high school students on the history of genocide. The measure also establishes a Genocide Education Trust Fund to help fund the teaching. The funds would come from the Legislature, private and public gifts, and grants and revenue from fines imposed for hate crimes.
Supporters cited a 2020 survey, commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which gauged Holocaust knowledge and found that 63% of Millennials and the Generation Z population did not know six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. The survey also found that nearly half were unfamiliar with Nazi concentration camps like Auschwitz.
“While racial, ethnic, national and religious violence has existed throughout the past and continues in the present, recent events suggest our collective knowledge of some of history’s worst atrocities is waning,” said Rep. Alice Peisch, D-wellesley, House Chair of the Committee on Education. “It is our responsibility to take steps to ensure we do not forget the past so that we can continue to build a better future, while still respecting the ability of individual school districts to shape the curricula of their students.”
“With this law, we can arm our students with the knowledge they will need to recognize the warning signs and feel empowered to prevent genocides in the future,” said Rep. Jeff Roy, D-franklin, the sponsor of the measure. “Making genocide education a mandatory topic for teaching in our schools is a reaffirmation of the commitment of free people from all nations to never again permit the occurrence of another genocide and to deter indifference to crimes against humanity and human suffering wherever they occur.”
“It is very important that the history of genocide is taught in our schools,” said Rep. Kelly Pease, R-westfield, one of the two representatives who opposes the bill. “However all the genocides that were discussed for the bill are already covthen ered by Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education curriculum. If there are shortcomings in how it is taught then that should be addressed, but not by setting up a separate fund that includes money from public and private sources such as gifts, grants and donations. DESE has already established the curriculum, why is more public and private money needed?”
Rep. Peter Durant, Rspencer, the only other representative to oppose the bill, did not respond to repeated requests by Beacon Hill Roll Call to comment on his opposition.
JUDICIARY COMMITTEE HEARS DOZENS OF BILLS — The Judiciary Committee was where a lot of the action took place on Beacon Hill last week. Here are some of the bills heard by the committee:
GENDER-BASED PRICE DISCRIMINATION: Creates a 15-member working group on gender equity regarding the pricing of items marketed for sale toward women in the state to better understand genderbased price discrimination on the state level. The group would report its findings and any recommendations for changes in current law by the end of 2022.
“I filed this bill because of complaints I received that products marketed to women cost more than similar products marketed to men,” said sponsor Rep. Jay Livingston, D-boston. “This price discrimination, also known as the ‘pink tax,’ includes body wash, shaving cream, razors, toys and accessories.”
Livingston said reports show that women pay as much as 50% more than men for similar products and that this costs women an average of $1,351 more per year.
“This pink tax, in combination with gender wealth issues such as the gender pay gap, holds the women of Massachusetts back financially,” he said.
GAY/TRANS “PANIC LEGAL DEFENSE”: Prohibits any defendant from using the victim’s actual or perceived sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression or sex assigned at birth as an excuse for the provocation of an act of violence, including murder, against the victim. This includes circumstances in which the victim made a nonviolent romantic or sexual advance toward the defendant or in which the defendant and the victim dated or had a romantic or sexual relationship.
“When this defense is employed, the perpetrator claims that their victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity not only explains — but excuses — their loss of self-control and subsequent homicide,” co-sponsors Sen. Jo Comerford, D-northampton, and Rep. Natalie Blais, Dsunderland, said in a joint statement. “When successful, these defenses have resulted in murder charges being reduced to manslaughter or another lesser offense. These defenses are rooted in irrational fears based on homophobia and transphobia and send the message that violence against LGBT people is understandable and acceptable.”
BAN DISCRIMINATION BASED ON HEIGHT AND WEIGHT: Prohibits discrimination on the basis of a person’s height or weight unless for the purpose of compliance with any established state, federal or industry safety standard.
“Women are particularly vulnerable to this type of discrimination in the hiring process and the workplace,” said sponsor Rep. Tram Nguyen, D-andover. “As a society, we need to change how we treat people based on their appearance, which can negatively impact their mental and physical well-being. Removing this barrier to equal participation in the workforce will not only benefit these deserving individuals, but their contributions will also boost our economy.”
“As our country makes efforts to provide resources to help and support people who are battling obesity, we must also protect our fellow Americans from height and weight-based discrimination,” Nguyen said. “It is appalling that the commonwealth has laws protecting an individual from discrimination regarding their race, sex, and disability, but not height and weight.”
PROHIBIT PUBLICATION OF HOME ADDRESSES AND PHONE NUMBERS OF JUDGES AND PROSECUTORS: Prohibits the publication with intent to expose a person to harassment or risk of harm to life or property of the home addresses, personal email addresses and unpublished telephone numbers of judges, prosecutors law enforcement officers as well as their spouses and children. The measure imposes up to a five-year prison sentence on violators.
“We are seeing increased threats and acts of violence against elected and appointed officials,” said sponsor Rep. Carol Doherty, D-taunton. “We now have a heightened awareness of the vulnerability of these individuals who, by the nature of their work, put themselves in the line of fire. We cannot protect our public servants from threats, but we can take measures to keep sensitive information from public view in order to prevent tragedies like the killing of U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas’ son Daniel. This legislation will play a critical role in allowing members of the judiciary and law enforcement to do their jobs without fear for their lives or those of their loved ones.”
PRIVACY OF AUDIO OF 911 CALLS: Prohibits the release of the audio version of 911 calls to the public or media except when authorized by the caller; requested by law enforcement agencies for investigative purposes; or when a court order finds that the right of the public to the release of the recording outweighs the privacy interests of the individual who made the call. The measure does allow the release of a written transcript of the audio at any time.
HOW LONG WAS LAST WEEK’S SESSION? Beacon Hill Roll Call tracks the length of time that the House and Senate were in session each week. Many legislators say that legislative sessions are only one aspect of the Legislature’s job and that a lot of important work is done outside of the House and Senate chambers. They note that their jobs also involve committee work, research, constituent work and other matters that are important to their districts. Critics say that the Legislature does not meet regularly or long enough to debate and vote in public view on the thousands of pieces of legislation that have been filed. They note that the infrequency and brief length of sessions are misguided and lead to irresponsible late-night sessions and a mad rush to act on dozens of bills in the days immediately preceding the end of an annual session.
During the week of Nov. 22-26, the House met for a total of 26 minutes while the Senate met for a total of 57 minutes.
Bob Katzen welcomes feedback at bob@beacon hillrollcall.com.