Many state legislatures across the country and U.S. Congress employ electronic scorecards for people watching their sessions on TV or online that show how each lawmaker votes in real time.
In Wyoming, no such mechanism exists, but the Select Committee on Legislative Facilities, Technology and Process advanced a proposal Thursday that would bring the Cowboy State close.
The committee voted unanimously for a proposal that would allow people watching the Legislature online to see how lawmakers are voting in real time.
The proposal falls short of what’s offered in other states as the real-time voting would only be accessible through a website separate from the Legislature’s live broadcast on YouTube. When the chief clerks start taking roll call votes, the website would connect to their voting screens.
Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, believes the proposal represents an important first step toward increasing public transparency at the Legislature.
“I think this is a big step forward to really help everybody out,” he said.
Why Is It Needed?
Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, and Rep. Dalton Banks, R-Cowley, were the most vocal supporters of the proposal Thursday.
“If we can have public perception that we are transparent, not trying to hide anything, if we accomplish that, that means we’re doing our jobs,” Banks said. “It’s about public perception, doing it in real time.”
The Wyoming Legislature already provides information on how legislators vote on each roll call vote on its website.
Wendy Madsen, special projects manager for the Legislative Service Office (LSO), explained how Wyoming was identified as a national leader for providing these results in 2015 by the National Conference of State Legislatures for its transparency regarding recorded votes.
“We were one of the first states in the country to actually take the roll call recorded by the chief clerk in that electronic system and distribute it to the website,” Madsen said.
Jamie Schaub, a senior IT specialist with the LSO, said the results of these votes are usually updated on the Legislature’s website, often in a manner of seconds to a few minutes.
Although he voted to support the proposal, Rothfuss also questioned the need for it, pointing out how someone could still criticize his vote if they didn’t see it in real time.
“I guess I don’t really see what this is solving overall,” Rothfuss said. “We’ve been talking about this for years, I don’t really understand what the value is for us or to the public to see this in real time.”
People can also see how their legislator voted by watching live in-person at the Capitol or on YouTube, but scrolling through those videos to find a specific vote can sometimes be a challenging task because of their length.
Cheyenne resident Ann Lucas, the Republican nominee for House District 43, also pointed out to Cowboy State Daily that trying to work through the Legislature’s website to find a vote can be difficult for someone who isn’t familiar with the legislative process and how the voting results are displayed.
“That can be a little confusing,” Lucas said. “A bill can be very complex and it can be difficult to see how the votes were recorded.”
Schaub mentioned how the topic of electronic scoring is not a new one at the Legislature, estimating that it’s been brought up almost every year for nearly a decade. The committee proposal will advance to the Management Council to consider at its meeting in November.
Peer Pressure
Laursen and Banks also pushed Thursday for installing physical scoreboards inside the legislative chambers, which would display lawmakers’ votes in real time for all to see.
“I think this looks really good,” Laursen said. Legislators deserve it in their chambers.”
Case was against this proposal, citing his belief that political gamesmanship, manipulating of rules and other unethical behaviors comparable to what’s seen in Congress could result.
“It becomes kind of a circus,” he said. “Then it’s a problem where your vote is really more what the packs doing.”
Laursen and Banks disagreed, both saying they aren’t concerned with how other lawmakers are voting.
“If games are going to take place, they’re going to take place regardless whether there’s a scoreboard on the wall or on a screen,” Banks said.
There was also some discussion on Thursday about displaying a live, electronic scorecard or a screenshare of the chief clerk’s computer screen on YouTube while votes are being taken, but Deputy Administrator of Operations Anthony Sara said these ideas would be difficult to orchestrate for the upcoming session.
Some have raised the accusation that lawmakers sometimes change their votes on controversial bills if it’s starting to look like their side won’t win while votes are being called out.
Others like Lucas have argued that every voice should be recorded and taken by roll call at the Legislature, which Thursday’s proposal will do nothing to address. Many votes, called “voice votes,” are taken as a group, which usually prevents the public from knowing how their individual lawmaker voted.
“Hopefully we’ll deal with that next year,” she said.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
