Lansing Sun

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy recently reported that Michigan’s lawmakers missed a combined total of 3,072 missed roll call votes in 2020.

That number is four times higher than last year’s missed 768 roll call votes. Jack McHugh, editor of MichiganVotes.org, a project of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, commented that the higher numbers could be attributed to lawmakers having contracted the COVID-19 virus or spending time in quarantine.

“The number of missed votes could have been a lot higher given the epidemic,” McHugh told the Mackinac Center. “Legislative leaders and members had to overcome many obstacles to schedule and show up for daily sessions.”

Out of Michigan’s 38 senators and 110 representatives, three senators and 15 representatives missed at least 50 votes in 2020, according to the Missed Votes Report. However, 15 senators and 54 representatives missed no votes at all this year.

The MichiganVotes.org project provides information on every bill and all the votes for every Michigan state legislator for the last 20 years. The program was launched to advise the public and help people make more informed voting decisions. 

Representatives often miss votes due to family, health or personal issues, and occasionally a legislator chooses to abstain from voting on a particular bill due to a potential conflict of interest, according to the Mackinac Center.