Question

Compare and contrast the bill voting procedures for the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Answer 1

The House and the Senate each have 3 main types of votes: voice, division, and record.

Record votes are referred to as “yea and nay votes” for the Senate most of the time

Record votes in the House of Representatives normally take place by electronic device. But may sometimes use the “yea” or “nay” voting procedure.

(The Voice vote applies to the houses. For voice votes, the chair asks this win favor to respond with “Aye” and those aren’t, with “No.” before the chair announces the side that prevailed, a member may ask for a Division vote.)

Division votes are also referred to “standing votes” by the House of Representatives. Those in favor stand up and are counted by the chair and those who are sitting down are also counted, the chair then announces the results. On the other hand, division votes in the Senate are rare and instead of standing up, they simply raise their hands. The chair doesn’t announce the results in this case.