Why California lawmakers miss votes — and why it matters

For the last five years, Democrats have had supermajorities in both legislative chambers — leading to “yes” votes most of the time. Sometimes, however, a legislator does not vote, either due to an absence or an abstention. But because both are categorized the same way — as “No Vote Recorded” — it’s difficult for constituents to discern if legislators are truly serving their needs, writes CalMatters Capitol reporter Sameea Kamal.

This year, seven legislators missed more than a quarter of their opportunities to vote. All are in the Assembly — four Democrats (Sabrina Cervantes of Corona, Liz Ortega of Hayward, Luz Rivas of Arleta and Chris Holden of Pasadena) and three Republicans (Devon Mathis of Visalia, Megan Dahle of Redding and Bill Essayli of Corona). 

Most were absent due to medical reasons: Dahle, for example, missed 74 days after a stroke she suffered in January. Cervantes, who missed more votes than any other legislator, had excused absences due to a death in her family and a bout with COVID-19.

But other times the reasons are unclear, so constituents don’t know if their legislators did not vote because they disagreed with the bill but want to remain in good standing with their colleagues; they’re waiting for the bill to be amended; or they’re just out sick.

• Lorena Gonzalez, California Labor Federation president and former Assemblymember: “Abstain, absent, truly absent, excused absence, unexcused absence, and just sitting at your frickin’ desk and choosing not to vote. … I don’t think there’s any transparency for constituents.” 

These no recorded votes, which are counted as “no” votes, can have real consequences: Digital Democracy data shows that 45 bills died in the current two-year legislative session. And in August, during the penultimate week of the session, 21 lawmakers attended the Democratic National Convention. On one of the days, a controversial bill by Sen. Dave Cortese related to criminal sentencing was up for consideration. It failed, but had the legislators been there, the Campbell Democrat said there might have been more discussion of amendments he added to help resolve some issues.

Read more about the consequences of legislators not voting in Sameea’s story.

Digital Democracy: There are many more ways to use Digital Democracy, a groundbreaking CalMatters project, to understand how state government works and create more accountability for politicians. Take a spin.

Abortion rights is cropping up in California legislative campaigns, but the issue’s impact could be bigger in key congressional races that could help decide control of Congress, again. 

As CalMatters’ Capitol reporter Jeanne Kuang and politics intern Jenna Peterson explain, Democrats in tight races are hoping to persuade voters by hammering on their opponents’ inconsistent stance on abortion rights. 

In 2021, four California Republicans in Congress signed a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn federal abortion protections, which the high court eventually did a year later. Three of the Republicans also co-sponsored a bill, which never made it out of committee, that essentially proposed to ban abortions nationwide with no exceptions.

But this spring, they walked away from the bill, and several of those in toss-up races say they don’t support a federal ban. In response, Democratic candidates and abortion rights advocates are calling out what they see as Republican backpedaling, hoping that will help them win back the U.S. House majority.

• Jennifer Wonnacott, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California spokesperson: “A lot of these candidates … really all of them, have tried rewriting their records or reframing it, but their votes, previous comments and statements speak for themselves.”

Republicans, however, are accusing Democrats of exaggerating their positions to distract voters from other issues. Said a National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson: “Democrats are lying … because they cannot win on their disastrous handling of inflation and crime.”

Learn more about how abortion rights are influencing key California congressional races in Jeanne and Jenna’s story.

Early voting: The Secretary of State has started tracking how many ballots have been returned — nearly 1.9 million as of Saturday. including 1.3 million by mail and 500,000 in drop boxes. That’s of 22.7 million ballots sent to registered voters. Reminder: Today is the last day to register to vote in the general election (though same-day, conditional registration is allowed until Nov. 5).

It seems that Gov. Gavin Newsom has something of a love-hate relationship with tech billionaire Elon Musk. 

In July, the two clashed over a gender identity law that Musk called the final straw in threatening to move the headquarters of his SpaceX venture from California to Texas. They also sparred over a law to stop deepfakes in campaign ads (which a judge temporarily blocked this month), with Newsom calling out Musk for sharing a video in which Vice President Kamala Harris’ voice was doctored.

But now, the governor is backing Musk over the state Coastal Commission, which SpaceX is suing after it rejected a Defense Department proposal to increase launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Some commissioners cited Musk’s support of former President Donald Trump, which also angered legislative Republicans, who called it an attack on free speech.

• Newsom, to Politico: “I’m with Elon. … You can’t bring up that explicit level of politics.”

In the interview with Politico after stumping for Harris in North Carolina, Newsom also said the commission, which includes his appointees, should decide the permit on its merits: “These are good commissioners. But you got to call balls and strikes. And trust me, I’m not big on the Elon Musk bandwagon right now. So that’s me calling balls and strikes.” 

While Newsom and Musk agree in this case, they’re definitely on opposite sides in the presidential race.

In his latest appearance on MSNBC, Newsom called Trump “increasingly acting deranged, unhinged.” Musk promised during an event Saturday in Pennsylvania to give $1 million each day to a voter who signs an online petition, though Democrats and others are questioning whether such payments are legal.

This week, CalMatters continues to share versions of our “Prop. in a Minute” videos with viewers of our partner PBS SoCal. Watch the one on Prop. 6.

SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.