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from the Washington Examiner
House Democrats dominated absentee voting in 2021
By Paul Bedard
January 29, 2022
WASHINGTON — Democratic House members used their COVID-era right to vote by proxy while sitting back home far more than Republicans in a process GOP leader Kevin McCarthy said cheats constituents.
In a new Ripon Society study, Democrats cast 72% of all absentee votes last year, while Republicans cast only 28%. Of the 17,263 proxy votes cast by fellow lawmakers for the absentee colleagues, 12,500 were by Democrats and 4,763 from Republicans.
The report from the centrist Republican group came a few days after McCarthy lost his challenge to the proxy voting system when the Supreme Court refused to consider it. He has argued that members get paid to represent their constituents in Washington in person.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed through the proxy rules at the height of the initial coronavirus crisis. It allows a member to have another member make their vote on the House floor. One member on the floor can put in a proxy vote for up to 10 others.
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The new Ripon data named names and gave details on every angle of the proxy votes used in the 438 roll call votes of the first session of the 117th Congress.
Some numbers:
- Each Democratic member voted by proxy on average 55.55 times — 12.68% of the time.
- Each Republican voted on average 22.15 times — 5.06% of the time.
- Three hundred and thirty-nine of the 440 members of Congress who served during the first session voted by proxy at least once.
- Two hundred and two Democrats voted by proxy out of 225 Democratic members who served at some point during the first session. Therefore 89.78% of all Democrats voted by proxy at least once in 2021.
- One hundred and thirty-seven Republicans voted by proxy out of 215 Republican members who served at some point in the first session. Therefore 63.72% of Republicans voted by proxy at least once during 2021.
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All of the top 15 who voted by proxy the most were Democrats, said the Ripon Society study. Florida Rep. Frederica Wilson never voted in person.
Some members from local delegations were tapped the most to make the absentee votes. Topping the list was Democrat Virginia Rep. Don Beyer, who cast 972 votes for others.