Today’s question comes from Erika M:
I see yea, nay, no, aye as the way congressmen voted. What does aye mean?
Ah parliamentary procedure. There’s no meaningful difference between Yea and Aye, and Nay and No. They both mean “I vote in favor” or “I vote against”. The difference is just a matter of procedure. The Constitution actually requires “Yea” and “Nay” for votes on the passage of bills (Article I Section 7), and so the House and Senate both do that for those particular votes.
In fact, the Senate uses Yea and Nay for all votes. Good for them for keeping things simple. It’s another story for the House.
There are two peculiarities of the House that make the answer to the question not so simple. First, they use Aye and No for all voice votes, where congressmen just shout out their vote and the chair judges who won just by listening. (Anyone can subsequently demand that the votes be recorded individually, in which case a recorded vote is used. In the Senate, voice votes use Yea and Nay.)
The second peculiarity of the House is that it operates in two modes of procedure, and that determines which kind of vote is used for recorded votes not on the passage of bills (because those are always Yea and Nay). These final types of votes could be for amendments, motions, etc. The first mode is normal House floor debate, which uses Yea and Nay for recorded votes, so you will see Aye and No for voice votes but Yea and Nay for recorded votes. Yea and Nay are reserved for this mode of debate only. The second mode is when the House operates as if it were a committee made up of everyone, called “The Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union,” and in this mode Aye and No are used for recorded votes as well as voice votes.
Some more details are in House Rules, if you want to pour through the details. It’s in Rules of the House, Rule XX, and House Practice in the section Voting.
10 comments so far...
Thanks for the clarification. As a first time visitor to the site I was a bit confused when I saw the votes and wondered why a simple yes or no would have been so much clearer.
There was H. Res.605 that passed on 3/16/10, with 412 Yes, 1 No, and 17 Did Not Vote. What does Did Not Vote Mean. Were they there and chose not to vote. Please explain.
Thanks
Clearine Hunter
You might want to “pore” through the details rather than “pour” though the details. Although to pore through the details of the House Rules may require pouring a few to make it palatable.
There are two types of not voting. The first is a sort of registered abstention called “present”. This is when the person is there but doesn’t cast a yes or no vote. The second vote, which is really “not voting”, is that the person just wasn’t there.
“Present” are those representive who cannot make-up his/her mind for political reason. They are thingking of the upcoming election and they do not like to offend the electorate. A “fence seater”, that they lean to the left or to the right depending on where the wind blows.
“Not Voting” is almost but not always the same as “Present” voters. The only exception are those representative(s) who can not attend the session for medical reason to cast the vote.
By being “Present” but not voting, they maintain a good attendance record so that a future opponent cannot say they missed X number of votes. They didn’t miss it, they just didn’t vote, for political reasons. No one can say they voted for the bill or against the bill.
Present could also mean that they have not had time to read the full legislation and do not feel they know exactly what they are voting on…. which has been happening alot. Like anwering a question after the asker has only spoken the first 3 words.
Voting Present can also mean that they are in favor of the general idea of the measure, but that it is a bad bill. Only the Yeas matter, so everything else is against, whether it is not voting, voting present, or voting Nay.
Perhaps you’d care to reconsider that, Chris. Both the Yeas and Nays matter. Since ‘Present’ and not voting doesn’t change the final ratio, it doesn’t matter a whit.
But why yea and nay instead of yes and no?
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