Reporter’s Notebook: Voting from home

Woody Allen has famous that 90% of life in life has just appeared.

In this sense, the House of Representatives should allow members of congress right from home?

How about very special criteria?

Oh, maybe you said, did you try this a few years ago during pandemic? Legislators would literally call their votes to a member of a deputy on the ground. This member of Washington, DC, would then hold out a number of index cards and announced how a member was either for a specific draft law, a change, a solution or a specific application.

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Should the House of Representatives allow you to vote from home? (Paul Bersebach/Medianews Group/Orange County Register about Getty Images)

This formed a vote in the darkest days of pandemic in the house.

Social distancing Sporter Proxy votes in the house. It was probably not the best idea to push 435 people into the house at the same time when Covid-19 2020 raged. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla. And the former MP Ben McAdams, D-UTAH, was tested positively in mid-March 2020.

It took a while, but the house finally adopted remote votes. Former house spokesman Nancy PelosiD-Calif., Initially had reservations against practice, but when pandemic intensified, the supporters argued that flying scores from all over the country to Washington and back to their districts are neither feasible nor secure.

This is how the Proxy Votes House implemented.

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The former spokesman for the house Nancy Pelosi speaks on October 24, 2024 in New York City at 92ny. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)

“People have to choose between their health and their voice. That shouldn’t be the case,” said Pelosi in 2020.

MP Don Beyer, D-VA. That means Beyer was always near Capitol Hill. Beyer served as one of the most reliable replacement for colleagues to make voices on the ground and would often come to the ground and read a flood of names towards the end of the roller call mood.

Former house spokesman Kevin McCarthyR-Calif., The practice condemned.

“We have never seen a deputy on the floor of the house for more than 231,” said McCarthy.

The then spokesman for the Kevin McCarthy house, R-Calif. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Democrats pointed out health and security. Many Republicans again pointed out the constitution. Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, in which “the majority of each (chamber) represents a quorum to do business”.

The GOP claimed that everything that the house was under deputy voting and democratic control – did an impact. Members had to be there personally. But many Republicans finally began to participate in practice – even if some were against the remote coordination.

Quickly forward to the present.

Rep. Anna Paulina LunaR-fla. Brought a son to the world in the summer of 2023. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., Word a son to the world in January. Pettersen was only the 13th woman who was ever born in office.

But becoming a new mother who does not always summarize the intensive schedule, which is required for members of the congress. On the trip to and after Washington, DC, the legislators will routinely take place at three locations at the same time: meetings with communities, voices on the ground and possibly at a hearing from the committee. You have the idea.

Then there are actual health concerns for new mothers. Doctors put some pregnant mothers on the bedding.

“The congress must be more accessible to normal people,” said Pettersen. “I was unable to vote a few weeks before the birth due to the medical restrictions from Colorado to DC.”

Luna had a similar experience.

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MP Anna Paulina Luna provides comments such as Rep. Matt Rosendale on January 5, 2023 in Washington, DC (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

“I tried to find out what the process was for members who are supposed to give birth. And to my disappointment I was surprised. I was said that I couldn’t vote,” said Luna. “This place is completely in contact with average Tags Americans.”

That is why Luna worked with Pettersen to remove a decision that expecting mothers who have just born, and even spouses of new mothers, a three -month window under which you can vote from a distance.

“It is the first step forward in the right direction to not only give the mothers a seat at the table, but also to encourage people to families,” said Luna. “It’s pretty difficult to get somewhere after eight months.”

There is a cumbersome parliamentary maneuver with which annoyed house members can use a conclusion for the tour if the spokesman is not interested in putting his pet problem on the ground. It is referred to as the “application for dismissal”. A request for discharge requires a solid signatures – regardless of the membership of the body at this moment – to force the house into account.

Applications for discharge are rarely successful.

On Thursday, January 2, 2025, Sunrise Light meets the US Capitol Dome when the 119th congress is supposed to begin. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

In 2002, the house successfully passed a application for dismissal for the landmark “McCain -Fehold” Campaign Financing Act.

Another discharge petition was not successful until there was a cross-party plan to be able to authorize the export import bank again in 2015.

But the discharge petitions have recently received a thrust. The house adopted two last year alone. One was a package to facilitate natural disasters. The members also presented a request for dismissal to contain the reduction in social security payments to seniors. But in the past quarter of a century, only four discharge applications collected the necessary signatures to force house actions.

The remote voting petition of Luna and Pettersen collected enough signatures last week. This will run the house to take the plan for the votes of voting rights representatives for mothers and parents into account – unless House spokesman Mike JohnsonR-La., The sponsors can convince to choose things.

Johnson rejects the remote coordination.

“I’m afraid, the whole thing is unconstitutional.”

MP Jim McGovern, D-Mass. He argued that the GOP counter reaction to the voting was “crazy during the pandemic”, but then McGovern called Johnson.

House spokesman Mike Johnson. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

“Spokesman Johnson voted 39 times from afar,” said McGovern.

MP Tim Burchett, R-Tennes, said he rejected the voting rights representation because the members can take advantage of the option.

“The members used the practice while covid. They used to go to fundraising. They used to go on vacation,” said Burchett. “But you can’t fake pregnancy.”

What Luna and Pettersen actually constructed was a application for dismissal for a “rule”. A “rule” is the parliamentary mechanism for the house to put an invoice or a solution on the ground. The remote voting plan would lose a “rule” that would enable the house to take the Luna/Pettersen -Resolution into account.

Every member who has signed in the discharge petition can try to call it on March 27th. The Haus GOP -Brass can do it until March 31 or April 1st

If the House chosen In order to put the “rule” on the ground for the remote vote, it can actually discuss and coordinate the proposed change itself. But the leadership of House Gop could also delay this step by a few days, maybe until April 7th or 8th.

The US house spokesman Mike Johnson is depicted in front of the US Capitol. (Getty Images/AP)

FOX is announced that Johnson could prepare a special rule from the rules committee to possibly hinder the Luna/Pettersen plan. According to the house rules, this plan could only make the voting right plan available on the second or fourth Monday of the month, but this approach is at best unwieldy.

The house is no longer a meeting on the second Monday of April 14, but it will hit Monday, April 28th. So it is possible that this could find out the plan until then.

FOX is also announced that the Republican leaders of Republicans want to tear down the pavement immediately. This could arrange for immediate measures if the house returns next week.

Remember that the signing of the discharge petition only provides you to get to the ground. The cohort of 218 members who signed the application for disclosure do not have to be right in favor of the procedural steps just described. You also do not have to vote for the actual change and enable a remote vote.

Therefore, there could be a lot of arm twisting of members behind the scenes who do not want the house to take over this plan.

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Regardless of this, if the house takes into account one of these machinations, members must personally vote in the chamber. At least for now.

Ninety percent of life in life only appear. But new parents who double as house members could argue that the success on the home front replaces this.