Posted by Some thoughts and observations on the House vote for HB 274 in which Randy Hinshaw (D – Meridianville) has been criticized for voting other legislators’ machines… Duwayne Bridges (R – Valley) has filed a complaint saying that Hinshaw voted Bridges’ machine as ‘yes’ on HB274, contrary to the way Bridges would have voted. Even Speaker Seth Hammett (D – Andalusia) recognized that Hinshaw was wrong on this one, according to Bridges.
Voting a legislator’s machine contrary to the way that legislator would want is particularly repugnant. The several legislators I talked to about this all agreed that it is common for other members’ machines to be voted the way the members who are away would have wanted, but I could not find even one on either side of the aisle that would defend Hinshaw.
As odious as voting a legislator’s machine contrary to that legislator’s wishes is, Hammett could say that House rules were enforced fairly – because Rule 32 was not invoked. Voting others’ machines is permitted unless Rule 32 is invoked. Early in the process, Jack Williams (R – Birmingham) had requested that Rule 32 be invoked but withdrew his request prior to the final vote. As an aside, why didn’t any other House member ask that it be invoked?
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FWIW, Greg Wren (R – Montgomery) also voted another’s machine that morning – even when Rule 32 was in force and contrary to the absent legislator’s wishes. David Grimes (R – Montgomery) had stepped out of the chamber (he was “frustrated,” he told the Parlor), when a vote for the BIR on HB 274 came up. (The BIR vote determines if the bill has enough votes to be brought to the floor before the budget is passed. Failing to pass the BIR vote typically kills a bill.) According to Grimes, Greg Wren tried to help Grimes by voting Grimes’ machine ‘No’ even though Grimes actually intended to vote ‘Yes’ on the BIR.
- Could the bill have passed without the vote from Bridges’ machine? Was the will of the legislative body subverted? Merika Coleman (D – Birmingham) didn’t vote on the bill and she would almost certainly have supported it. Laura Hall (D – Huntsville) had stepped away, did not vote and has gone on the record saying she wanted to vote for the bill. A better question might be the one proposed to me by a House opponent of the bill who wondered why proponents weren’t counting better since they had the votes. Rep. Grimes volunteered to me his opinion that if the bill came up in the House again (for example, if the Senate sent back a slightly different version) that he felt sure it would pass. (63 House votes are necessary for a bill involving a constitutional amendment; HB 274 passed 63-38.)
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Danny, even though Rule 32 was not in effect during the grocery tax vote, at the start of the legislative day, Mike Hubbard motioned that the machines of absent representatives be locked throughout the rest of the day. His motion carried, so the machines should not have been open in the first place. Someone should look into why the machines were unlocked, because even if Jack Williams rescinded his request to invoke Rule 32, the machines of absent representatives should have remained locked per Hubbard’s motion.
FWIW, my understanding is that Hubbard’s request that the machines be locked was a request for the Clerk, not a motion voted on by the body.
I have looked into it a bit, and I intend to post about it.
Hinshaw is an interesting character. I like the guy in one sense. He’s a hardcore democrat and he’s not ashamed of it in the least despite being in a gop leaning area. But stunts like the one he pulled in this case make all of them in montgomery look very bad.
I’ll bet dollars to donuts that DuWayne didn’t quite understand what he was voting on, told someone to vote his machine, then got backlash against his vote and cried foul.
The Repubs can never stop whining about what should be done, and what is done, etc…but they are at best no better than the Dems, and at worst contemptible in their massive corruption.
Also, no one real voter gives a flip about this.
[...] I have observed at least two occasions in the press when House Minority Leader Mike Hubbard (R – Auburn) has said that he asked for the voting machines of some absent Republicans to be locked on the day that the House was discussing HB 274, the proposal from John Knight related to removing the state sales tax off grocery purchases, but that to Hubbard’s surprise the machines were unlocked when Rep. Jack Williams withdrew the request to invoke Rule 32. (I can’t find a news link at the moment with Hubbard’s comments. Rep. Mike Ball mentioned it here, and a commenter mentioned it here.) [...]
I’ll take that bet real talk. Am I getting the dollars or the donuts?
Bridges wasn’t even in the country when the vote was cast. He was in China. He wasn’t there to misunderstand a vote.
And I agree with you on another point. There probably aren’t voters who give a flip about this and that’s part of why we have the problems we have.
You take an apathetic, uninformed electorate and mix it with a corrupt and cunning Party that controls the reins of the legislature, and this is what we get.
The House Speaker (indeed, a DEMOCRAT) actually can justify what his party does with a straight face because they are so used to pulling this crap and never being held accountable.
Meanwhile the peasants continue to pick their noses, watch and vote for America’s “Idol” in numbers greater than the Presidential election and expect a different result from their governmnent.
Scorpius is right. This kind of crap would never happen if the Republicans were in charge … like in Texas.
No one should ever vote the machine of another House member under any circumstances. What needs to happen is for the House to have a period of time where the machine is left open so members can go to their desks and vote their own machine. This open the machine and give 10 seconds to vote is part of the problem.
Our legislators are ridiculous. It seems with their newly inflated salaries that they could manage to vote without “stepping away” or simply missing the vote on accident. This is unacceptable.
Alabamians think ‘no taxation without representation’ is a 200 yr old moss covered credo; that such cant happen today. it happens every day in Alabama because of Pac to Pac transfers and shenanigans like Jack Williams and Randy Hinshaw. Bridges is correct and any registered voter in his district has standing to bring a federal lawsuit.