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Newsday, Troy Record & Myrtle Beach Sun-News, January
8, 2005
Senate Democrats Say New Republican Voting Rules Are ‘Repression’
Joel Stashenko
Democrats in the state Senate contend that the new rules the majority
Republicans intend to adopt Monday are far from the reforms Majority Leader
Joseph Bruno has been promising for months.
In fact, Democrats say, some of the rules will even further tighten what they
argue is a stranglehold the majority currently holds over the minority in the
Senate in terms of sponsoring bills, influencing their passage or defeat and
getting Republicans to take up the issues Democrats want them to.
Bruno countered that the rules changes are significant and historic
"reforms."
"They just took repression and put a different title on it," said
David Paterson, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate.
Chief among the Democratic complaints is what Republicans are calling
improvements in the maligned practice of "empty seat" voting in the
Senate. That has allowed senators _ Republican or Democrat _ to be recorded
as voting "yes" for a bill even though they are not actually
present in the Senate chamber when measures are being voted on.
New rules the Senate Republicans will bring to the floor Monday will
stipulate that members must be at their desks when votes are taken if they
want to vote "no." At the same time, the new rules will prohibit
"party-line votes," a sort of parliamentary shorthand in which a
Republican will declare which way all Republicans in the chamber are voting
and a Democrat will say how Democrats are voting.
The effect of the change will mostly mean that Democrats _ who cast the bulk
of the "no" votes in the Senate on legislation that's almost
invariably sponsored by Republicans _ will be more closely tied to their
desks during the chamber's sessions. Republicans who have already privately
given their approval to the movement of bills to the floor of the Senate will
feel comfortable having their votes recorded as "yes," even if they
are not present at the time.
Some Democrats have complained that they there are bona fide reasons not to
be in the Senate at times during working days, such as when groups of
constituents are in Albany want to talk to them.
"What they have done, basically, is under the rubric of reform is to
take steps to further concentrate power in the majority," said
Democratic state Sen. Eric Schneiderman. "Open-seat voting is approved
for Republicans and outlawed for Democrats."
Bruno said Republicans are looking to introduce an electronic voting system
in the 62-member Senate similar to one that is used in the larger state
Assembly.
But Democratic Sen. Liz Krueger said the Senate does not need a fancy new
system of recording votes.
"You don't need an electronic system to count `yes' and `no'
votes," she said. "Hands in the air have worked for hundreds of
years."
Sen. Thomas Duane said Democratic senators will be forced to employ delaying
tactics if their members are at committee meetings or hearings and not
present to vote against bills.
"We'll just have to hold up what happens on the floor so that none of us
miss voting on issues of importance to our constituents," he said.
"We will have to make it so we refuse to have to make that choice
between voting in committees and voting on the floor."
Duane, Krueger, Paterson and Schneiderman are all from Manhattan.
John McArdle, a Bruno spokesman, said the Democrats are overstating concerns
about the new voting procedures. He said senators, either Republican or
Democrat, will still be allowed to request "unanimous consent" from
the Senate to be recorded as voting against measures if they miss votes and
are recorded as voting yes.
Paterson said that runs counter to his understanding of the Republican rules.
He said Republicans have "made it clear" they will not give consent
to members who want to vote against bills after the fact once the new voting
procedures are approved Monday.
The Democrat-controlled state Assembly will also vote Monday on changing
procedural rules, including its own ban on "empty seat" voting.
Government reform advocates say the Assembly changes are fairer to minority
Republicans in the Assembly than the Senate rules are to minority Democrats
in that chamber.
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