Purpose: Cloture votes are used in the Senate to end debate and move to a final up-or-down vote on the matter. The Senate cannot move forward until cloture is agreed to. Voting against cloture is essentially a filibuster. Because it takes 3/5^ths of senators to achieve cloture, it is used as a tool by those against the matter to avoid the final simple-majority vote. Read more at Filibusted.us.

Number:	Senate Vote #326 in 2009 [primary source]
Date:	Oct 22, 2009 11:54AM
Result:	Cloture Motion Agreed to
Related Bill:	H.R. 2647: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010

	Totals			Democrats	Republicans	Independents	All Votes
			Needed To Win
Yea:	64	(64%)		57	5	2
Nay:	35	(35%)		1	34	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.)

Vote Details

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.