The Silent Seat: Five Reasons Why Lawmakers Deciding Not To Vote Is a Betrayal of the Public Trust

Why legislators who sit in their chairs but avoid casting votes undermine representation, transparency, and the very purpose of democracy.

🕒 Read time: 7 minutes

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For Elected Representatives, Silence Is Not Golden

There is an unsettling practice in the California State Legislature — State Senators and Assemblymembers who are in their respective chambers when a vote takes place, but choose not to vote.

Today, over at the CalMatters website, an article by Ryan Sabalow about this terrible practice is worth reading. In it, I say, “Somebody’s voting record is the single most appropriate way for a voter to understand how they’re being represented in Sacramento, because it’s black and it’s white. When you go to look and you see that there’s ‘no vote recorded,’ you obviously don’t know what that means.”

I knew this piece was coming when I spoke with the reporter who was writing it last week, giving me time to produce this column.

Let me start by saying that there are a couple of reasons why being present and not voting might make sense. One would be an actual conflict of interest — for example, if a legislator has a direct financial stake in the outcome of a bill. Another would be if the bill’s language had been substantially changed at the last minute, leaving no time for proper review. But outside of rare cases like these, there is no good reason to dodge the duty of casting a vote if you are right there in the room. In fact, there are many reasons why refusing to vote harms the process, accountability, and the public.

Here are five of them:

1. Representation Denied

Voters elect legislators to take positions. Members who are physically present but decline to vote deny their constituents the promised representation. The public deserves clarity on where their representative stands. Without a recorded vote, constituents cannot evaluate performance, hold officials accountable, or even know whether their concerns were heard inside the Capitol. This isn’t complicated - unless you think a piece of legislation in front of you, as it is presented, should be a law - vote no. Period.

Actually this informative column with the other four reasons a conclusion about why this matters is right below the paywall below. You want to read this.

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