Answer to Your Name

The chamber, seat by seat

Every rule on this page turns on a count: one-fifth of those present, two-thirds, four-fifths, and the size of the second largest party. This is the chamber those counts are taken from, as the legislature's own member records list it today: the 39 senators who answered the most recent roll call, and the President, who is not called.

A handful of senators can put any vote on the record

Both chambers let a share of the members demand a roll call. The Senate's rule adds a second door, and says out loud who it is for.

Regardless of the party affiliation of the person requesting or supporting a call of the yeas and nays, the sense of the Senate shall be taken by yeas and nays whenever required by one-fifth of the members present or by a number of members equal to the total number of members of the minority party, whichever is less.

Senate Rule 56

"Whichever is less" is the operative phrase. However small the minority party is, that many senators can force the record, and the rule bars anyone from asking which party they belong to. It is a headcount, not a membership test. The rules also say which party counts: for Rule 56, "minority party" means "the second largest group of members of the Senate affiliated with a political party." A third party of one would not lower the bar. A second party of one would, all the way to a single senator. Today the second largest party has 5 members, so 5 senators, of any party, can put any question on the record.

In a chamber of forty that is a low bar, and it shows: on the Senate's divided votes, the losing side is five senators or fewer 57 percent of the time. Those are votes that in the House would mostly have passed by voice, with no names attached.

The President may wait up to ten minutes before ordering the call, while members are summoned to the chamber, and with an hour's notice may set a fixed time for the vote instead.

Informal sessions are for emergencies, and one objection ends anything

The House rule lets the Speaker call an informal session whenever the Speaker likes, with a day's notice, and forbids roll calls once there. The Senate's version is a different animal.

In case of extreme emergency, the President may for a period not exceeding 2 days … cause a session of the Senate to be cancelled or declare an otherwise formal session to be informal in nature.

Senate Rule 5A

Two days, and only in an extreme emergency. Rule 7, the calendar rule, then attaches a condition the House's rules never do: when the calendar is suspended under Rule 5A, "a session shall be considered informal and no matter shall be considered if a member at said session objects to its consideration." A single senator, of either party, can stop any item from moving in an informal session simply by saying so. Nothing passes quietly unless everyone in the room lets it.

The Clerk calls the roll, and the answer you give is the answer that stands

The House votes on an electronic board, with a window of up to twenty two minutes and a provision for members recorded after the roll has closed. The Senate does it the old way.

Whenever a question is taken by yeas and nays, the Clerk shall call the names of all members, except the President, and every member present shall answer to such member's name, unless excused before the vote was taken. No member shall be permitted to vote after the decision is announced from the Chair.

Senate Rule 57

Two things follow. There is no after-the-fact vote in the Senate, so its record has no asterisks, and a senator who wants out of a vote must be excused before it starts, not after. And the President is not called, which is why a full Senate roll call usually carries thirty nine names rather than forty. The President may vote on all questions under Rule 3, a rule that has stood unchanged since 1826, and appears on the sheet only when choosing to.

A senator may hand the chair a letter that answers for them

The one exception to answering in person is written into the rule immediately after it, and it is a strange and careful thing.

A member may authorize the presiding officer to announce the member's vote by submitting a letter to the Clerk that specifies the member's exact instruction to the presiding officer on how to answer the question for which the roll call is ordered.

Senate Rule 57C

The letter must say exactly how to answer. The Clerk must tell the President and the minority leader that it exists. And the Clerk must keep a public list of every such authorization in force, available after any vote that used one. It is a proxy, but a proxy that cannot be exercised with discretion and cannot be kept quiet. If a senator's name is answered by the chair, the record of why is a public document.

Committee votes go online, with a summary, "as soon as practicable"

The House sets itself a 48 hour clock for posting committee votes. The Senate's rule has no clock but asks for more.

All recorded votes of each member and by the committees shall be posted on the website of the General Court as soon as practicable, alongside a summary of each bill or other legislative matter upon which the vote was taken.

Senate Rule 12

The summary is the part the House does not require. The same rule obliges committees to give members "the text and comprehensive summaries" of a bill before voting on it, to accept written testimony and post it, and to run hearings on a platform the public can join remotely. Where the votes end up is the same place as the House's: a Committee Vote tab on the bill's page, sorted into the same four groups.

The President is chosen on the record, and the rule that says so is nearly unrepealable

The Senate's oldest rule about its chair is five words long, and the newest one about the chair is armored.

The President may vote on all questions.

Senate Rule 3, adopted 1826

The President shall be elected by roll call vote on the Senate floor. This rule shall not be suspended except by a vote of four-fifths of the members present and voting thereon.

Senate Rule 4A

Under Rule 63, setting aside an ordinary Senate rule takes two-thirds of the members present and voting. This one takes four-fifths, and says no other rule may override that. Choosing the President by a show of hands, or by acclamation, would need thirty two of forty senators to allow it. The dates printed under the rule, 1993, 2002, 2019 and 2025, show each generation has found a reason to tighten it.

What all of it adds up to

Every Senate roll call the legislature publishes through its data service, counted by two year session. The record starts thinly in 2009 to 2010, has nothing at all for 2011 to 2012, and runs continuously from 2013. Unlike the House, the Senate does not date its roll calls in that feed, so the count is by session rather than by year.

Half of everything the Senate records is unopposed, which sounds like the House until you look at the other half. The Senate's divided votes are genuinely divided: forty one of them fell inside 60 to 40, and eight were decided by a single senator. A low threshold for the roll call does not make a chamber argue more. It makes the arguments it already has visible.

The Senate votes later, and its long nights are budget nights

Every roll call the record dates to the hour: 1,370 in the House since 2018 and 1,817 in the Senate since 2013. The House's busiest hour is 14:00, the Senate's 16:00. The Senate keeps voting through the evening where the House has largely stopped: eight in a hundred of its roll calls come at 10 PM or later, against four in the House. What both chambers vote on after midnight is mostly what the Constitution makes them record, borrowing and land takings, taken at the end of the last night because they cannot be skipped.