WASHINGTON, D.C. — Club for Growth Foundation today released its Missed Votes Florida scorecard for the State Legislature’s 2021 regular and special sessions. The newly launched Missed Votes Scorecards calculate how often lawmakers show up to vote and how often they miss votes.
According to Club for Growth Foundation President David McIntosh, “Constituents need to know the missed votes records of their representatives so they can decide for themselves if elected officials are avoiding a difficult vote or have a legitimate reason for missing a particular vote. Sadly, this information is often not available, and that is why the Club for Growth Foundation is publishing Missed Votes scorecards.”
Lawmakers miss votes for a whole host of reasons, including medical issues, family concerns, prior commitments, purely political motivations, or other reasons. The Club for Growth Foundation generally doesn’t analyze why a lawmaker has missed a vote and is simply publishing this quantified information for educational purposes only.
This scorecard is based on a review of all floor votes taken in the Florida State Legislature from March 4, 2021 to November 17, 2021. There are inherent limitations in judging the overall qualifications of any legislator based on how many votes he or she has missed, and the Club for Growth Foundation does not endorse or oppose any legislator for public office.
Key Insights
Florida Senate
The average Florida senator missed 2 percent of 387 total floor votes, with Republican senators on average missing 1 percent of all floor votes and Democrat senators on average missing 2 percent of all floor votes. Sen. Jeffrey Brandes (SD-24) missed the most votes- 35 votes out 387 – for a score of 9 percent missed votes. By not missing a single vote, the following senators received a perfect attendance score:
- Jim Boyd (SD-21)
- Keith Perry (SD-08)
- Tommy Wright (SD-14)
Florida House of Representatives
The average Florida House member missed 3 percent of 447 total floor votes, with Republican members on average missing 3 percent of all floor votes and Democrat members on average missing 4 percent of all floor votes. Rep. Linda Chaney (HD-69) missed the most votes – 176 out of 447, – for a score of 39 percent missed votes. By not missing a single vote, the following house members received a perfect attendance score:
- Alex Andrade (HD-2)
- Adam Botana (HD-76)
- Cord Byrd (HD-11)
- Wyman Duggan (HD-15)
- Juan Fernandez-Barquin (HD-119)
- Joy Goff-Marcil (HD-30)
- Michael Grant (HD-75)
- Brett Hage (HD-33)
- Lauren Melo (HD-80)
- James Mooney (HD-120)
- Toby Overdorf (HD-83)
- Daniel Perez (HD-116)
- Anthony Rodriguez (HD-118)
- Michelle Salzman (HD-1)
- Jason Shoaf (HD-7)
- David Silvers (HD-87)
- Tyler Sirois (HD-51)
- David Smith (HD-28)
- Chris Sprowls (HD-65)
- Kaylee Tuck (HD-55)
- Clay Yarborough (HD-12)
- Ardian Zika (HD-37)
We asked lawmakers who missed at least 10 percent of the votes if they’d like us to include an explanation. Here are a few of the responses we received:
Rep. Anthony Sabatini (HD-32): I was exposed to a member who had COVID so was asked to stay home for a week.
Rep. Linda Chaney (HD-69): Thank you for reaching out to our office. State Representative Linda Chaney would like to leave a note saying the only votes that she missed were because her father was in the hospital dying. Therefore, due to this family emergency she needed to be at his side.