Five legislators missed more than 30% of their votes in 2011.
Yesterday, I wrote that Utah’s legislators skip a LOT of votes. On average, 7.1% of Representatives missed each vote during the 2011 session, and 14.4% of Senators missed each vote. And earlier today, I posted some analysis showing why some votes get skipped more than other votes.
Now, let’s name names. Which Utah legislators miss the most votes?
Winners of the (almost) perfect attendance award
Nobody had perfect attendance in 2011, but a few legislators came close. These are the 10 legislators with the best attendance record during the 2011 session.
| Legislator | Number of missed votes | Number of votes held | Percent of missed votes |
| Rep. Stephen Handy | 1 | 651 | 0.2% |
| Rep. Dean Sanpei | 2 | 651 | 0.3% |
| Rep. Tim Cosgrove | 3 | 651 | 0.5% |
| Rep. Fred Cox | 4 | 651 | 0.6% |
| Rep. Keith Grover | 5 | 651 | 0.8% |
| Rep. Jim Nielson | 6 | 651 | 0.9% |
| Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck | 8 | 651 | 1.2% |
| Rep. Val Peterson | 8 | 651 | 1.2% |
| Rep. Joel Briscoe | 11 | 651 | 1.7% |
| Rep. Steve Eliason | 11 | 651 | 1.7% |
You’ll notice that all of those folks are in the House. In fact, no Senator came close to being in the top 10. The best attendance in the Senate was by Sen. Ralph Okerlund, who missed 37 of the 940 votes held in the Senate in 2011, missing “only” 3.9% of his votes. There were 24 Representatives with a better attendance record than that.
Legislators who missed the most votes
Five legislators missed more than 30% of their votes in 2011. Starting from the most frequently absent legislator, here are the ten worst offenders.
| Legislator | Number of missed votes | Number of votes held | Percent of missed votes |
| Sen. Chris Buttars | 342 | 940 | 36.4% |
| Rep. Mel Brown | 221 | 651 | 33.9% |
| Sen. Lyle Hillyard | 315 | 940 | 33.5% |
| Speaker Becky Lockhart | 210 | 651 | 32.3% |
| Sen. Curt Bramble | 301 | 940 | 32.0% |
| Sen. Mark Madsen | 268 | 940 | 28.5% |
| Sen. Dennis Stowell | 252 | 940 | 26.8% |
| Sen. Dan Liljenquist | 227 | 940 | 24.1% |
| Sen. Luz Robles | 225 | 940 | 23.9% |
| Rep. Eric Hutchings | 149 | 651 | 22.9% |
I suppose we might excuse Sen. Buttars and Sen. Stowell on account of health issues. Sen. Buttars resigned shortly after the session as a result; Sen. Stowell passed away in April.
I suppose we might also excuse Speaker Lockhart on account of her leadership position. After all, research in the Congressional context has found that U.S. House speakers tend to have higher absentee rates than rank-and-file Representatives. Of course, Senate President Waddoups missed only 6.2% of his votes (6th best attendance in the 29-member Senate) despite holding a similar leadership position.
The complete data table
If you want to see every legislator’s absentee rate for every session from 2007 through 2011, you’ll find that data here: Absenteeism in the Utah legislature. At first, you’ll see averages that span the 2007 through 2011 sessions. You can view a specific year by following the relevant links.
What do some legislators miss so many votes?
I’ve already written a post explaining why some votes get a higher absentee rate than other votes. (Among other things, legislators are more likely to skip a lopsided vote, and they’re less likely to skip a vote if it’s on a bill sponsored by leadership.) However, I haven’t yet offered any analysis as to why some legislators have a higher absentee rate than other legislators. Stay tuned. That’s coming soon.
Update: See “Why do legislators skip votes?” for a look at some of the reasons.
Update: See “Which legislators run the most bills?” for a look at which legislators introduce the most bills and get the most bills passed.
Possibly related posts:
Possibly related posts (automatically generated)
Who missed the most votes in the 2014 Utah Legislature? (March 19, 2014)
One reason Rep. Brown and Sen. Hillyard might have a higher percentage of missed votes is because they are the chairs of the Executive Appropriations committee.
Pretty much all the folks who missed a lot of votes either have (a) an important leadership position (Lockhart, Brown, Hillyard) or (b) they sponsored high-profile bills (Bramble, Liljenquist, Robles, Hillyard, others).
I’ll address the reasons that some folks miss more votes than others in a future post.
Missing votes to get a bill they are sponsoring through a comitttee or other house is common and in some cases required. I missed 4 floor votes while trying to get a bill I was sponsoring through the senate.
Congratulations…..your repeated running of the ad regarding Mr. Liljenquist’s attendance had decided my vote. I will be voting for Mr. Liljenquist!
Keep up the good work with your annoying, negative advertising, your competition could not have gotten better exposure and it didn’t cost him a dime!
Please realize that not all analysis has a political motivation. I calculated and posted these numbers a year ago, long before Liljenquist announced he was getting into the US Senate race. I’m aware that the Hatch campaign has cited my numbers in their ads, but I’ve got nothing to do with those ads. Statistics from this site were also used in several other (lower-profile) campaigns this past spring. I commented on this politicized use of my statistics a few weeks ago. You might find the post interesting:
http://utahdatapoints.com/2012/04/do-statistics-like-absentee-rates-matter-in-reelection-campaigns/