Utah legislators with the best and worst attendance records of 2012

The 2012 legislative session saw a modest decline in legislator absenteeism. In 2011, 7.1% of Representatives missed a typical vote in the Utah House, whereas 14.3% of Senators missed a typical vote in the Utah Senate. These numbers dropped somewhat in 2012, to 5.9% in the House and 10.0% in the Senate. The chart below shows the trend since 2007.

Average absentee rate, by year

Absenteeism in the Utah House

This table lists the 10 (actually 11) members of the Utah House with the lowest absentee rate, followed by the 10 with the highest absentee rate. (You can find data for all 75 Representatives here.)

Rank Representative Party Missed votes Votes held Absentee rate
1 Cox, Fred C. R 1 651 0.2%
1 Peterson, Val L. R 1 651 0.2%
3 Chavez-Houck, Rebecca D 3 651 0.5%
4 Galvez, Brad J. R 4 651 0.6%
4 Sanpei, Dean R 4 651 0.6%
6 Barlow, Stewart R 5 651 0.8%
7 Poulson, Marie H. D 6 651 0.9%
8 Handy, Stephen G. R 7 651 1.1%
9 Frank, Craig A. R 9 651 1.4%
9 Grover, Keith R 9 651 1.4%
9 Peterson, Jeremy R 9 651 1.4%
66 Hughes, Gregory H. R 79 651 12.1%
67 Lockhart, Rebecca D. R 83 651 12.7%
68 Sandstrom, Stephen E. R 88 651 13.5%
69 Sumsion, Kenneth W. R 92 651 14.1%
70 Dougall, John R 100 651 15.4%
71 McCay, Daniel R 101 651 15.5%
72 Ray, Paul R 105 651 16.1%
73 Painter, Patrick R 112 651 17.2%
74 Hutchings, Eric K. R 136 651 20.9%
75 Brown, Melvin R. R 163 651 25.0%

Absenteeism in the Utah Senate

Since there are fewer Senators than Representatives, I list only the 5 lowest and highest absentee rates here. Data for all 29 Senators is here.

Rank Senator Party Missed votes Votes held Absentee rate
1 Reid, Stuart C. R 2 890 0.2%
2 Okerlund, Ralph R 21 890 2.4%
2 Weiler, Todd R 21 890 2.4%
4 Anderson, Casey O. R 26 890 2.9%
5 Romero, Ross I. D 28 890 3.1%
25 Madsen, Mark B. R 157 890 17.6%
26 Urquhart, Stephen H. R 177 890 19.9%
27 Stephenson, Howard A. R 180 890 20.2%
28 Niederhauser, Wayne L. R 194 890 21.8%
29 Hillyard, Lyle W. R 255 890 28.7%

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About Adam Brown

Adam Brown is an associate professor of political science at Brigham Young University and a research fellow with the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. You can learn more about him at his website.
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5 Responses to Utah legislators with the best and worst attendance records of 2012

  1. Todd Weiler says:

    I think this would be more meaningful if you only considered the votes for the third reading calendar.

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