Purpose: Cloture votes are used in the Senate to end debate and move to a final up-or-down vote on the matter. Cloture means ending debate and moving forward: the Senate can't move on until cloture is agreed to. Voting against cloture is essentially a filibuster. Because it takes 3/5ths of senators to achieve cloture, it is used as a tool by those against the matter to avoid the final simple-majority vote.

Overview

Number:	Senate Vote #169 in 2008 [primary source]
Date:	Jul 9, 2008 4:11PM
Result:	Cloture Motion Agreed to
Related Bill:	H.R. 6331 [110th]: Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008

	Totals			Democrats	Republicans	Independents	All Votes
			Needed To Win
Yea:	69	(69%)		50	17	2
Nay:	30	(30%)		0	30	0
Present:	0	(0%)		0	0	0
Not Voting:	1	(1%)		0	1	0
Required:	3/5 of 99 votes (=60 votes) (Vacancies in Congress will affect vote totals.)

Votes

Cartogram

Standard Projection

Horizontal bars indicate the two senators from a state voted differently.

Cartograms give an equal area in an image to an equal number of votes by distorting the image. Senate vote cartograms are shown with each state stretched or shrunk so that the states each take up an equal area because each state has two votes. For House votes, it is each congressional district which is stretched or shrunk.