OLYMPIA — WashingtonVotes.org has released its annual MISSED VOTES REPORT, which compiles the votes by state lawmakers on recorded roll calls during the 2022 Regular Session of the Washington State Legislature. The PDF version of the 2022 WashingtonVotes Missed Votes Page is available here.
WashingtonVotes.org’s real-time Missed Votes database is also accessible by clicking “Missed Votes” under the Special Reports feature on the WashingtonVotes.org Home Page. To display the Missed Votes for the 2022 Session, change the date range at the top of the page to Jan 2022-Dec 2022. Tallies are available for every session back to 2002 by changing this date range. Individual lawmakers’ records can be accessed by clicking on a member’s name, explained Franz W. Gregory, the site’s director.
This year’s scheduled 60-day session ended at about 11:35 p.m. Thursday, March 10, 2022, following final passage of key spending measures, including a record $64.1 billion two-year state operating budget and $17 billion, 16-year transportation package.
WashingtonVotes.org has provided access to objective descriptions of bills, amendments, and votes of the Washington State Legislature since 2002. In addition, the website provides regular news updates to subscribers and website users, as well as a weekly roll call report to media outlets statewide. Currently, the site has some 6,500 active subscribers.
2022 Regular Session Quick Facts
• Bills introduced: 1,051
• Bills passed by the Legislature: 303
• Recorded Roll Calls on passage of bills: 915 (441 in the House; 474 in the Senate)
• Legislators with no missed votes: 87 (60 House Members; 27 Senators)
• Legislators with 20 or more missed votes: 13 (8 House Members; 5 Senators)
According to WashingtonVotes director Franz W. Gregory, state lawmakers worked at a steady pace this 60-day session, including late evening and weekend floor sessions, despite continued restrictions on in-person contacts among members and the public.
They took a total of 915 recorded roll call votes, along with hundreds of voice votes and passed 303 bills. By comparison, they took 1,167 roll call votes and passed 381 bills during the comparable 60-day 2020 session.
During the 105-day session in 2021, lawmakers took 974 roll call votes and passed 341 bills. The 2021 session was the first session that operated under COVID restrictions, and only a total of 1,108 measures were introduced, after legislative leaders asked members to limit their bill introductions.
The ten-year average for bills passed, according to statistical reports by the Legislative Information Center, is 405 bills in odd, budget-writing years, and 288 bills in even years. This year’s number of bills passed is 25 above the average for 60-day sessions.
WashingtonVotes.org is a free public service of Washington Policy Center, an independent, non-profit public policy research organization with offices in Seattle, Olympia and Eastern Washington.