In general, roll call votes, or voting by “yeas” and “nays,” is a method in which the clerk or presiding officer calls each member’s name and their answer of yea or nay is recorded. In Massachusetts, legislators have the option of voting Yea (Y), Nay (N), Present (P), or Not Voting (X). An asterisk (*) next to a member’s name denotes that the vote was made after the roll call was taken.
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| Example of House Roll Call from Yea/Nay Supplement; Note Roll Call No. 184. |
Some bills and specific legislation in Massachusetts require roll call votes as determined by the state’s Constitution. For example, bills authorizing the Commonwealth to borrow or lend money or for land taking require roll call votes. For more information, see the Massachusetts Legislative Research and Drafting Manual.
If you are researching a bill, and want to know whether a roll call vote occurred, you can check the bill’s history either in the journals or online. For the House, roll call votes are organized into the Yea/Nay Supplement of the journals. Each roll call vote is assigned an identifying number. In the print House journals, the supplement can be found at the end of the last volume. Researchers can also download roll call votes as PDFs using the specific roll call number or can download all roll call votes for a given year from the Massachusetts Legislature Site. For the Senate, roll call votes are included in the journals on the day in which the vote was taken; Senate roll calls are also numbered separately.
Another helpful resource to consult is the Massachusetts Political Almanac. The almanac compiles key Senate and House Roll Call votes from the yearly legislative session. It provides a summary of the bill as well as the outcome of the vote. The library holds print issues of the Massachusetts Almanac back to 1974.
As the almanac notes, while it is beneficial to know how your legislator voted on a certain cause or bill, a simple “yea” or “nay” cannot encompass all motivations or reasoning behind a vote. That’s why it is encouraged to contact your legislator’s office to learn more about each issue.
For assistance on any of the resources mentioned, please contact the Reference Department at reference.department@mass.gov
April Pascucci
Reference Librarian
