OLYMPIA—WashingtonVotes.org has released its annual Missed Votes Report, which compiles the votes by lawmakers on recorded roll calls during the 2018 regular session of the Legislature. This year’s scheduled 60-day session ended just after 10:00 pm on March 8th, following passage of key budget and school funding by narrow vote margins.

WashingtonVotes.org has provided access to objective descriptions of bills, amendments and votes of the Washington State 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. Currently, the site has more than 7,200 active subscribers.

2018 Regular Session Quick Facts

•   New bills introduced:   1,425

•   Bills passed by the Legislature: 310

•   Recorded Roll Calls on passage of bills in the House: 549

•   Recorded Roll Calls on passage of bills in the Senate: 492

•   Legislators with no missed votes: 71 (44 House Members; 27 Senators)

•   Legislators with more than 50 missed votes: 3 (1 House Member; 2 Senators)

According to WashingtonVotes director Franz W. Gregory, state lawmakers worked at a brisk pace during this 60 day-session, taking a total of 1,041 roll calls and passing 310 bills. By comparison, they took 1,167 roll calls and passed 339 bills during the 105-day regular session in 2017. The totals  for the 193 days of regular and special sessions during all of 2017 was 1,394 roll calls and 377 bills passed.

The ten-year average for bills passed, according to statistical reports by the Legislative Information Center, is 427 bills in odd years, and 292 bills in even years.

Three legislators missed more than 50 votes, and 71 members had a perfect roll call record this year. By comparison, during the 105-day 2017 regular session, 96 legislators had a perfect roll record.

“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 2018 Missed Votes Report and responses from legislators is available online here:  WashingtonVotes Missed Votes Report 2018

WashingtonVotes.org’s real-time Missed Votes database is also accessible by clicking “Missed Votes” under the Special Reports 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. Individual lawmakers’ records are accessed by clicking on a member’s name.

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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.