Assembly Speaker Cracks Down on 'Ghost Voting'

New Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is cracking down on a practice called "ghost voting." That's when an Assembly member casts a vote for a colleague. In some cases, the absent colleague isn't even aware that his or her vote has been cast; and it's not always the vote the absent member would've cast. KPCC Morning Edition host Steve Julian spoke with Steve Maviglio, a spokesman for Bass, about the tradition of "ghost voting."

Steve Maviglio: Well, it happens nearly every day. In 99.9% of the cases, the member is usually about four feet away from their desk, talking about the next bill or something else, and they ask a seatmate to vote for them. It's touching a button on a noncontroversial bill in almost all but a few cases.

Steve Julian: Now, the assembly rules forbid it, but ghost voting's been going on for a long time. You know, the assembly installed that electronic voting system in 1935. Why has it been tolerated for so long?

Maviglio: Well, it's more of a custom. It's sort of like, you know, driving 55, or jaywalking; you know it's against the rules, but you do it because it's the easiest thing to do. There's been really almost no harm done.

I think the newspaper that reported this the other day picked about seven examples over all those years where it's actually been an issue. Previous years, it used to be members were out of the building, on another floor, actually in another part of the state. That's prohibited now, nobody does that anymore.

Julian: Assembly speaker Karen Bass talked to her fellow Democrats yesterday about this. What did she say?

Maviglio: Well, she was trying to be the ghost buster. She told the members that it's their responsibility to vote as often as they can, and vote and push the button themselves. She made sure that everybody is on the green carpet, which means in the chamber or exactly next to it, where you can actually see what's going on on a giant television, so that nobody's casting a vote for you that you're not happy with.

And yeah, actually, as a result of some of this latest go-round, a lot more members have stopped it altogether, and also told them, if they're not comfortable with the process at all, they should just shut off their voting machine.

Julian: You mentioned before that it's usually with noncontroversial bills, but Kevin de Leon, the assemblyman, cast a yes vote for a fellow Democrat once; the colleague was actually against the bill. When the Chronicle confronted de Leon about it, he said "Yeah, I don't recall it, but I don't deny it either." You can't get away with this stuff in high school, why the assembly?

Maviglio: Well, you know, again, I'm not sure. Nobody's really seeing that with a day when we had more than 300 bills going on, again, most of them noncontroversial. And again, this was one example where a member brought up an issue, she actually changed her vote where it actually reflected what she wanted, and it was one unfortunate incident.

Julian: Do you see any future problems with this in the assembly this year?

Maviglio: You know, I don't think so. I think most members were walking around with their hands in their pockets yesterday already after the speaker spoke. Everybody's cognizant of what the public perception of the issue is.

But again, you know, here's this small chamber; in most instances, you're just on the other side of the room or feet away, and you're just asking somebody to hit your button for you. Some of the more dramatic examples are, indeed, very rare.

Julian: So there won't be an all out ban?

Maviglio: No, the rule is the rule, and members will follow the custom of the rule. As long as they're in the same area, and they nod their head and say "Hey, can you hit the button for me?" That's all it is. It's just like being in the senate, where you just simply speak up your voice no matter where you are. And the assembly, 'cause there's more members, you actually have to hit a button.

Julian: Steve Maviglio's the spokesman for Karen Bass. Thanks very much.

Maviglio: You're welcome.