BOSTON — The number of roll call votes by the state House of Representatives has plummeted in recent years, prompting concerns from open government groups about a lack of transparency in Beacon Hill’s often secretive legislative process.
In the current legislative session, which got underway in January 2023, the House has held 81 roll calls that recorded how each lawmaker voted on specific bills, according to voting records from the House clerk’s office.
But the number of recorded votes has been declining for years, with 105 roll calls held during the preceding two-year session in 2021 and 2022, according to the data. In the 2017-18 session, the House held 313 roll call votes.
There has also been a decline of recorded votes in the state Senate, where 135 recorded votes were held during the 2021-22 session, according to the Senate clerk’s office. That’s compared to 186 roll call votes in the 2020-21 session.
Open government groups say the declining number of recorded votes raises serious issues about transparency and accountability in state government.
“While these numbers are outrageous, they are not entirely surprising; the sharp drop in roll call votes is part and parcel of a larger trend of concentrating power on Beacon Hill,” said Erin Leahy, executive director of the group Act on Mass., a Boston-based nonprofit that advocates for government transparency.
“Legislating is increasingly done with few, near-unanimous votes on mega-bills with dozens of policy items, and to request a roll call on an amendment not preordained by leadership is considered a transgression,” she said.
Jonathan Cohn, policy director of the group Progressive Massachusetts, said the lack of recorded votes deprives people of “opportunities to make progress on the many critical challenges” facing the state.
“So much of the legislative process occurs behind closed doors, and recorded votes are a critical opportunity for legislators to show the public where they stand,” he said in a statement.
The issue of scuttling roll call votes came up during the state Senate’s debate on a sports betting bill in April 2022 when the Democratic-controlled chamber passed the legislation on a “voice vote” that didn’t record how individual senators voted.
The move sparked an outcry over transparency in the Legislature and prompted criticism of Senate President Karen Spilka, who previously opposed authorizing sports wagering, for allowing the anonymous vote.
Spilka defended the vote, saying senators were free to say how they voted. The Senate later held a roll call vote on the final version of the bill.
Over the past two years, lawmakers pushed through several major pieces of legislation dealing with tax reforms, climate change, election reforms, transportation, sports betting, mental health and veterans affairs.
But they also failed to pass countless stand-alone bills that remain stuck in legislative committees as lawmakers lobby behind the scenes to win support for their proposals.
Leahy said the trend of declining legislative roll call votes is part of a much larger problem of “secrecy” by elected officials on Beacon Hill, where the governor’s office, Legislature and courts all claim to be largely exempt from the state’s public records laws.
She said that means constituents cannot find out how their representatives and senators are voting on their behalf, which ultimately affects democracy.
“How can a legislator represent the will of their constituents when they rarely take votes?” she said. “And how can a legislator represent their constituents when they are convinced that the votes they do take can’t change the outcome?”
“The floor is now more a stage for political theater than it is for genuine debate and decision-making,” Leahy said.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at [email protected].
By Christian M. Wade | Statehouse Reporter
Source link
