‘Ghost’ tally puzzles Daley
State Rep. Pete Daley, D-California, said Wednesday he doesn’t know who placed a vote for him Tuesday that could have allowed the House to approve a $30.8 billion state budget, because he was on leave.
“I don’t know who voted for me,” he said. “I wasn’t there. I’m not responsible. My buttons are open. Anyone can walk by and vote you ‘yes’ or vote ‘no.'”
On the Pennsylvania House of Representatives website, Daley is listed as voting in favor of a motion to allow the House to reconsider a “framework” budget passed Dec. 7 by the state Senate rather than a stopgap measure being proposed by House Republicans. That measure passed 100-99, with the help of Daley’s vote, and a second vote on moving the bill forward was 100 in favor and 97 against. Daley is listed as having not voted the second time.
Daley, an attorney, said he followed procedures in notifying Rep. Mike Hanna, D-Clinton/Centre, the Democratic Caucus whip, that he would be on leave Tuesday because he was representing a client in a hearing in Washington County that could not be rescheduled.
“I didn’t know they didn’t put me on leave until late afternoon, when I was heading back to Harrisburg,” Daley said. “I did everything I had to do. I can verify that what I asked to do was done.”
Bill Patton, press secretary of the House Democratic Caucus, said Daley followed procedure.
“Daley did request leave from the Democratic whip,” Patton said. “That did not get communicated to the House floor. We’re looking into what happened.”
State Rep. Brandon Neuman, D-North Strabane Township, said representatives who are excused have an “E” placed next to their name on a highly visible screen. When a vote is cast, the screen lights up with green for yes, or red for no, next to a lawmaker’s name.
“If there’s a miscommunication and (you’re) not placed on leave, your voting mechanism is open for someone to hit the button for you if you’re not in your seat,” Neuman said. The practice is known as ghost voting.
He said it is not uncommon for someone else to push a button for a lawmaker who would have to leave the floor for a few minutes in a non-controversial vote.
“The button was pushed, but I don’t know by whom,” Patton said.
He said on a typical session day, three to five members are given leave.
“This sort of glitch does not come up often at all,” Patton said.
Nathan Benefield, vice president of policy analysis for Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative think tank whose president was tweeting Tuesday about the goings-on, said ghost-voting “happens often, though it’s not often called out or caught.”
“It makes you question our system of government. It’s very suspicious and troubling that you have members not in the capital and not around, officialy voting on this roll call, that could have changed the direction of a piece of legislation,” Benefield said.
After representatives were dismissed by Republican leaders Wednesday without voting on a budget as the six-month impasse continues, Neuman said lawmakers were “given no direction on what’s going to happen next.”
“A number of representatives … are sharing the pain with the public and not taking a paycheck,” said Neuman, who is not accepting his pay. “We are committed to getting this budget completed.”
According to the House of Representatives website, Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, voted yes both times Tuesday; Rep. Jim Christiana, R-Beaver, voted yes on the first and no on the second; Rep. Jason Ortitay, R-South Fayette, voted no both times; Rep. John Maher, R-Upper St. Clair, voted yes in the first vote and left before the second vote to attend to personal issues; and Rep. Rick Saccone, R-Elizabeth, was on leave and did not vote.