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'Ghost Voting' Might Stick Around In Texas House
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The Texas House of Representatives is spending more than $100,000 on a new fingerprint-based voting system, but it won't necessarily stop lawmakers from routinely breaking their own rules by casting votes for each other.
House members now vote electronically from machines installed on top of their desks. While House rules say it's a violation to reach over and cast a yea or nay for absent colleagues, the controversial practice of "ghost voting" is widespread.
A Travis County Grand Jury called on House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, to start enforcing the chamber's own rules against it.
In response, the House is installing 10 new fingerprint-activated voting machines at a cost of $128,000, the Austin American-Statesman reported in Saturday's editions. Two of them will be installed in the members-only House lounge, which is currently undergoing a renovation costing taxpayers more than $140,000.
However, use of the new machines will be strictly voluntarily, so state representatives could still cast votes for each other from their desks, just as they do now.
House rule 47 says any member "found guilty by the House of knowingly voting for another member on the voting machine shall be subject to discipline deemed appropriate by the House," but lawmakers openly flout the rule every legislative session. Lawmakers will kick off a new five-month session on Jan. 13.
The Statesman report raised questions about the approval process for the new voting machines. There was no public vote on the purchase, and many House members were not aware they were being installed. Terral Smith, the speaker's chief of staff, said the expenditures didn't need specific approval from the House Administration Committee, which normally oversees internal chamber affairs.
"If we're making something easier for the members, we probably have the authority to do it," Smith said. "If we're making something harder for the members, we'd want them to vote."
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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