Michigan lawmakers missed 3,072 roll call votes last year. | Pixabay
Michigan lawmakers missed 3,072 roll call votes last year. | Pixabay
Michigan's Missed Votes Report shows that state senators and representatives missed a total of 3,072 roll call votes in 2020.
Thirty-eight senators and 110 representatives missed thousands of roll call votes, with 15 of the representatives and senators missing 50 or more, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy reported. But 15 senators and 54 representatives missed no votes at all last year. Many of these missed votes account for lawmakers staying home due to COVID-19 or being in quarantine.
"Excluding purely procedural votes, the Senate held 632 roll call votes in 2020 and the House 649, for a total of 1,281 roll call votes by the entire Legislature. In 2019, there were 1,614 roll call votes taken by both legislative bodies," the Mackinac Center reported.
Jack McHugh, editor of MichiganVotes.org, compiled the list, and he said the number of missed votes could have actually been higher.
“The number of missed votes could have been a lot higher given the epidemic,” McHugh said, according to the Mackinac Center. “Legislative leaders and members had to overcome many obstacles to schedule and show up for daily sessions.”
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