Rep. William Nichols

Former Representative for Alabama’s 3^rd District

Nichols was the representative for Alabama’s 3^rd congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1973 to 1988.

He was previously the representative for Alabama’s 4^th congressional district as a Democrat from 1967 to 1972.

Bioguide

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Analysis

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Nichols is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the House of Representatives in 1988 positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Nichols sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 1983 to Oct 22, 1988. See full analysis methodology.

Enacted Legislation

Nichols was the primary sponsor of 13 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 13 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110^th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Nichols sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:

Armed Forces and National Security (40%) Government Operations and Politics (25%) Economics and Public Finance (15%) Native Americans (10%) Education (10%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Nichols recently introduced the following legislation:

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Jan 1967 to Oct 1988, Nichols missed 1,317 of 10,280 roll call votes, which is 12.8%. This is much worse than the median of 5.5% among the lifetime records of representatives serving in Oct 1988. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

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

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
1967 Jan-Mar	31	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Apr-Jun	57	1	1.8%	40^th
1967 Jul-Sep	59	0	0.0%	0^th
1967 Oct-Dec	98	5	5.1%	76^th
1968 Jan-Mar	38	1	2.6%	60^th
1968 Apr-Jun	79	3	3.8%	65^th
1968 Jul-Sep	91	5	5.5%	61^st
1968 Oct-Oct	25	10	40.0%	94^th
1969 Jan-Mar	16	4	25.0%	89^th
1969 Apr-Jun	28	3	10.7%	51^st
1969 Jul-Sep	45	2	4.4%	29^th
1969 Oct-Dec	88	20	22.7%	81^st
1970 Jan-Mar	35	6	17.1%	67^th
1970 Apr-Jun	74	18	24.3%	68^th
1970 Jul-Sep	76	8	10.5%	39^th
1970 Oct-Dec	81	22	27.2%	72^nd
1971 Jan-Mar	22	1	4.5%	26^th
1971 Apr-Jun	90	8	8.9%	29^th
1971 Jul-Sep	74	17	23.0%	86^th
1971 Oct-Dec	134	11	8.2%	40^th
1972 Jan-Mar	64	9	14.1%	62^nd
1972 Apr-Jun	114	27	23.7%	78^th
1972 Jul-Sep	101	38	37.6%	93^rd
1972 Oct-Oct	50	44	88.0%	97^th
1973 Jan-Mar	36	8	22.2%	81^st
1973 Apr-Jun	191	16	8.4%	50^th
1973 Jul-Sep	131	9	6.9%	58^th
1973 Oct-Dec	182	29	15.9%	82^nd
1974 Jan-Mar	79	13	16.5%	85^th
1974 Apr-Jun	170	30	17.6%	81^st
1974 Jul-Sep	148	12	8.1%	68^th
1974 Oct-Dec	141	20	14.2%	66^th
1975 Jan-Mar	66	1	1.5%	33^rd
1975 Apr-Jun	199	13	6.5%	53^rd
1975 Jul-Sep	154	13	8.4%	62^nd
1975 Oct-Dec	191	16	8.4%	68^th
1976 Jan-Mar	106	11	10.4%	66^th
1976 Apr-Jun	267	47	17.6%	80^th
1976 Jul-Sep	281	11	3.9%	34^th
1976 Oct-Oct	7	1	14.3%	70^th
1977 Jan-Mar	100	7	7.0%	58^th
1977 Apr-Jun	273	23	8.4%	56^th
1977 Jul-Sep	198	7	3.5%	33^rd
1977 Oct-Dec	135	17	12.6%	76^th
1978 Jan-Mar	150	16	10.7%	70^th
1978 Apr-Jun	300	34	11.3%	64^th
1978 Jul-Sep	308	46	14.9%	78^th
1978 Oct-Oct	76	12	15.8%	82^nd
1979 Jan-Mar	61	5	8.2%	74^th
1979 Apr-Jun	221	21	9.5%	66^th
1979 Jul-Sep	198	7	3.5%	32^nd
1979 Oct-Dec	190	38	20.0%	87^th
1980 Jan-Mar	148	14	9.5%	53^rd
1980 Apr-Jun	197	12	6.1%	39^th
1980 Jul-Sep	192	51	26.6%	94^th
1980 Oct-Dec	67	11	16.4%	69^th
1981 Jan-Mar	15	2	13.3%	73^rd
1981 Apr-Jun	90	3	3.3%	25^th
1981 Jul-Sep	106	7	6.6%	62^nd
1981 Oct-Dec	142	19	13.4%	79^th
1982 Feb-Mar	48	1	2.1%	24^th
1982 Apr-Jun	119	8	6.7%	65^th
1982 Jul-Sep	193	33	17.1%	89^th
1982 Oct-Dec	99	19	19.2%	82^nd
1983 Jan-Mar	43	1	2.3%	17^th
1983 Apr-Jun	182	28	15.4%	86^th
1983 Jul-Sep	130	11	8.5%	79^th
1983 Oct-Nov	143	18	12.6%	82^nd
1984 Jan-Mar	53	16	30.2%	96^th
1984 Apr-Jun	223	27	12.1%	79^th
1984 Jul-Sep	96	7	7.3%	64^th
1984 Oct-Oct	36	1	2.8%	29^th
1985 Jan-Mar	36	6	16.7%	83^rd
1985 Apr-Jun	154	3	1.9%	21^st
1985 Jul-Sep	101	17	16.8%	95^th
1985 Oct-Dec	148	15	10.1%	84^th
1986 Jan-Mar	61	8	13.1%	72^nd
1986 Apr-Jun	128	65	50.8%	99^th
1986 Jul-Sep	202	8	4.0%	50^th
1986 Oct-Oct	60	35	58.3%	98^th
1987 Jan-Mar	39	1	2.6%	34^th
1987 Apr-Jun	187	12	6.4%	62^nd
1987 Jul-Sep	95	4	4.2%	55^th
1987 Oct-Dec	167	35	21.0%	95^th
1988 Feb-Mar	49	4	8.2%	63^rd
1988 Apr-Jun	161	27	16.8%	91^st
1988 Jul-Sep	152	41	27.0%	94^th
1988 Oct-Oct	89	1	1.1%	32^nd

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
GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills