Stephen Douglas, former Senator for Illinois

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Douglas was a senator from Illinois and was a Democrat. He served from 1859 to 1861.

He was previously a senator from Illinois as a Democrat from 1853 to 1859; a senator from Illinois as a Democrat from 1847 to 1853; the representative for Illinois’s 5^th congressional district as a Democrat from 1845 to 1847; and the representative for Illinois’s 5^th congressional district as a Democrat from 1843 to 1845.

Photo of Sen. Stephen Douglas [D-IL, 1859-1861]

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Dec 1847 to Mar 1861, Douglas missed 1,520 of 3,547 roll call votes, which is 42.9%. This is much worse than the median of 20.5% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Mar 1861. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
Dec 1847-Mar 1848	82	13	15.9%	25^th
1848 Apr-Jul	116	68	58.6%	78^th
1848 Aug-Aug	66	24	36.4%	75^th
Dec 1848-Mar 1849	80	19	23.8%	50^th
Dec 1849-Feb 1850	22	3	13.6%	0^th
1850 Mar-May	64	25	39.1%	89^th
1850 Jun-Aug	154	43	27.9%	67^th
1850 Sep-Sep	108	69	63.9%	88^th
Dec 1850-Mar 1851	141	54	38.3%	50^th
1849 Mar-Mar	10	1	10.0%	33^rd
Dec 1851-Mar 1852	38	7	18.4%	17^th
1852 Apr-Jul	80	27	33.8%	42^nd
1852 Aug-Aug	91	19	20.9%	42^nd
Dec 1852-Mar 1853	127	48	37.8%	75^th
1851 Mar-Mar	22	11	50.0%	67^th
Dec 1853-Mar 1854	51	11	21.6%	31^st
1854 Apr-Jul	230	95	41.3%	77^th
1854 Aug-Aug	64	19	29.7%	38^th
Dec 1854-Mar 1855	178	67	37.6%	93^rd
1853 Mar-Apr	23	7	30.4%	42^nd
1856 Jan-Mar	32	23	71.9%	95^th
1856 Apr-Jul	133	65	48.9%	63^rd
1856 Aug-Aug	124	50	40.3%	79^th
1856 Aug-Aug	16	2	12.5%	21^st
Dec 1856-Mar 1857	144	59	41.0%	63^rd
Dec 1857-Feb 1858	57	22	38.6%	90^th
1858 Mar-May	217	107	49.3%	90^th
1858 Jun-Jun	121	55	45.5%	90^th
Dec 1858-Mar 1859	269	146	54.3%	87^th
1857 Mar-Mar	29	18	62.1%	74^th
1858 Jun-Jun	9	1	11.1%	27^th
Dec 1859-Feb 1860	43	34	79.1%	95^th
1860 Mar-May	158	100	63.3%	91^st
1860 Jun-Jun	132	132	100.0%	98^th
Dec 1860-Mar 1861	232	57	24.6%	66^th
1859 Mar-Mar	32	5	15.6%	57^th
1860 Jun-Jun	10	10	100.0%	83^rd
1861 Mar-Mar	42	4	9.5%	37^th

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:

unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo

Sen. Stephen Douglas

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Voting Record

Missed Votes

Primary Sources