Contact: Lisa Shin
206-937-9691
lshin@washingtonpolicy.org 

WashingtonVotes.org has released its annual Missed Votes Report that compiles the votes by lawmakers on recorded roll calls during the 2016 regular and special sessions of the legislature. The legislature adjourned “Sine Die” on March 29, 2016, which means it won’t meet again until next January, unless the governor calls another special session.

WashingtonVotes.org has provided access to objective descriptions of bills, amendments and votes of the Washington legislature since 2002.  In addition, the website provides regular news updates to subscribers and website users, as well as a weekly roll call report to media outlets statewide. 

This year’s scheduled 60-day regular session ended on March 10th without an agreement on a supplemental budget. The governor immediately called lawmakers back into special session, which lasted an additional 20 days, adjourning on March 29th after passing a supplemental budget and overriding a record 27 vetoes issued by Governor Inslee at the end of the regular session. These were the first successful votes to override a gubernatorial veto since 1981.

According to Franz W. Gregory, WashingtonVotes.org’s director, lawmakers worked at about the same pace as previous sessions, with the bulk of votes on final bill passage recorded during the closing days of each session. They took a total of 973 recorded roll calls and passed 292 bills. Eight legislators missed more than 50 votes, and 89 members had a perfect roll call record. By comparison, during the 2014 off-year session 90 legislators had a perfect record on 911 recorded roll calls.

“There are many reasons why legislators miss votes, such as civic or professional obligations, legislative negotiations and medical and family emergencies,” Gregory explained. WashingtonVotes.org contacted the legislators who missed the most votes and gave them an opportunity to comment on their record. 

A PDF version of the 2016 Missed Votes Report and responses from legislators are available online. 

WashingtonVotes.org’s real-time Missed Votes database is also accessible by clicking “Missed Votes” under the Look Up feature on the Home Page. Tallies are available for every session back to 2002 by changing the date range at the top of the page. (For the 2016 sessions, please be sure to define the date range as January 2016 to December 2016.) Individual lawmakers’ records are accessed by clicking on a member’s name.

WashingtonVotes.org is a free public service of Washington Policy Center, an independent, non-profit public policy research organization with offices in Seattle, Olympia and Eastern Washington.  For more information call 206-937-9691 or visit WashingtonVotes.org.