WASHINGTON, D.C. — Club for Growth Foundation today released its Missed Votes Maryland scorecard for the General Assembly’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.
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.
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.”
This scorecard is based on a review of all floor votes taken in the Maryland General Assembly from January 15, 2021 to December 9, 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
Maryland Senate
The average Maryland senator missed 1 percent of 1,156 total floor votes, with Republican senators on average missing 1 percent of all floor votes and Democrat senators on average missing 1 percent of all floor votes. Sen. J.B. Jennings (SD-7) missed the most votes- 170 votes out 1,156 – for a score of 15% missed votes. By not missing a single vote, the following senators received a perfect attendance score:
- Mary Carozza (SD-38)
- Paul Corderman (SD-02)
- George Edwards (SD-01)
- Douglas Peters (SD-23)
- Justin Ready (SD-05)
- Bryan Simonaire (SD-31)
- Charles Sydnor (SD-44)
Maryland House of Delegates
The average Maryland House member missed 5 percent of 1,322 total floor votes, with Republican members on average missing 5 percent of all floor votes and Democrat members on average missing 5 percent of all floor votes. Rep. Curtis Anderson (HD-43) missed the most votes – 1,215 out of 1,322, – for a score of 92% missed votes. By not missing a single vote, the following house members received a perfect attendance score:
- Jessica Feldmark (HD-12)
- Adrienne Jones (HD-10)
- Eric Luedtke (HD-14)
We asked the lawmakers who missed at least 10% of the votes if they’d like us to include an explanation. Here are the responses we received:
Rep. Dan Cox (HD-4): After COVID vaccination commenced in the MGA this Session for Legislators, I became very ill for two weeks, was hospitalized from the illness, and was excused from votes by the Speaker until I was cleared by my doctors as being well. The Speaker has a rule not allowing admittance to the House Floor of anyone with a fever and illness each of which I possessed.
As soon as I was cleared for re-entry to the Floor I was back and voting. Even while sick, I was able to participate in committee votes whenever possible because they were by zoom and I forced myself to do so.
Rep. Ariana Kelly (HD-16): During the 2021 session, because of COVID safety procedures, I was one of the legislators who via lottery were seated in the “Legislative Annex” and casting my official votes on an official ipad. However, as Subcommittee Chair for the Health Occupations and Long Term Care Subcommittee, I had to defend numerous bills on the House Floor in the State House. On these days, I missed numerous floor votes. My voting system iPad could not leave the Annex, but I physically had to leave the Annex, run across the street and up the stairs to the State House Chamber, wait for my bills to be called in the Legislative Lounge, defend the bills and answer questions from colleagues, and run back to the Annex. While this process was extremely difficult, and unfortunately resulted in numerous missed floor votes for largely uncontroversial bills, it was necessary as a COVID precaution.