In 2002 and 2003, three of California’s largest newspapers, the Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, and Los Angeles Times, carried articles and editorials raising concerns about the increasingly frequent practice of nonvoting by California legislators. To better understand the occurrence of nonvoting in the California Legislature and the factors that influence its practice, the study described in this report was conducted, focusing on: (1) nonvoting trends and patterns in the California Legislature; (2) factors contributing to legislator nonvoting; (3) differences in voting rules across state legislatures; and (4) legislator perspectives on nonvoting.
A data analysis of California’s 2001-02 Legislative Session shows a substantial role played by non- voting in bill failures. On average bills failed with 36.3 percent of members in opposition, 29.5 percent in support and 34.3 percent not voting. Consistent with the hypotheses of political sci- ence scholars that nonvoting is less likely where public visibility is heightened, committee votes had significantly higher nonvoting rates than floor votes—37.2 percent and 15.5 percent on failed bills, respectively. While wide variation in nonvoting rates was found among individual legislators—with a high of 60.0 percent, a low of 0.0 percent, and an average of 25.0 percent on failed bills—further study is required to determine conclusively the reasons behind the variation.
