On Edit: What's the point of voting Present?

[PresidentObama]

ON EDIT: I launched this vote out of curiousity, apparently you can't vote present in the Senate. Thanks Rinsd for that answer. Again, just asking out of curiousity.

Why have the option of voting Present?

[rinsd]

1. You can't vote present in the Senate

[PresidentObama]

2. Oh? I did not know this, why is it different?

Curious...

Why have present votes anyway?

[rinsd]

4. Its a political ass covering thing in Illinois.

Apparently instead of voting no pols in IL can vote present. Even though this counts as a no vote, it allows IL pols to confuse voters.

In the Senate I believe one can abstain from voting but it does not count as a yes or no vote.

[PresidentObama]

6. So it's basically a way of avoiding being on record on a certain issue?

Hmmmm.

And I thought the Senate had something along the lines of a Present vote, but I was not sure. Thank you for your answer. Sometimes DU gives me an education, every now and again...when we aren't attacking one another :)

[caligirl]

10. When dealing with unscrupulous repugs in the Ill senate something needed to be done to protect dems:

from abcnews blogs

ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: When Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., voted "present," rather than "yes" or "no" on a handful of controversial abortion votes in the Illinois state senate, he did so with the explicit support of the president and CEO of Illinois Planned Parenthood Council.

"We at Planned Parenthood view those as leadership votes," Pam Sutherland, the president and CEO of the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council, told ABC News. "We worked with him specifically on his strategy. The Republicans were in control of the Illinois Senate at the time. They loved to hold votes on 'partial birth' and 'born alive'. They put these bills out all the time . . . because they wanted to pigeonhole Democrats."

Speaking to ABC News as Obama was preparing to join Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and the wife of Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., in addressing Planned Parenthood’s national conference in Washington, D.C., Sutherland said Obama approached her in the late 1990s and worked with her and others in crafting the strategy of voting "present." She remembers meeting with Obama outside of the Illinois Senate chambers on the Democratic side of the aisle. She and Obama finished their conversation in his office.

"He came to me and said: 'My members are being attacked. We need to figure out a way to protect members and to protect women,'" said Sutherland in recounting her conversation with Obama. "A 'present' vote was hard to pigeonhole which is exactly what Obama wanted."

"What it did," she continued, "was give cover to moderate Democrats who wanted to vote with us but were afraid to do so" because of how their votes would be used against them electorally. "A 'present' vote would protect them. Your senator voted 'present.' Most of the electorate is not going to know what that means."

While Sutherland was happy to give Obama latitude in voting "present," rather than "no," she was quick to note that "it’s also not a 'yes' vote."

[rinsd]

13. That covers 7 of his present votes. 122 to go.

In addition this "tactic" to attract moderate Dems while protecting them?

Only one had an election that was remotely contested. The other had won handily or ran unopposed.

First this first came up it was Plannned Parenthood's plan

Pam Sutherland, president of Illinois Planned Parenthood Council, said Mr. Obama was one of the senators with a strong stand for abortion rights whom the organization approached about using the strategy. Ms. Sutherland said the Republicans were trying to force Democrats from conservative districts to register politically controversial no votes.

Ms. Sutherland said Mr. Obama had initially resisted the strategy because he wanted to vote against the anti-abortion measures.

“He said, ‘I’m opposed to this,’” she recalled.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/us/politics/20obama.html?pagewanted=2

But the organization argued that a present vote w

Now its Obama who devised the plan according to your link.

Smells like Sutherland is doing some serious ass covering.

[caligirl]

14. obviously your supporting Hillary and thats fine. do your own research . Or we can talk about the

millions in $$$ Hillary, the corporatist democratic leader, made in India while thousands lost jobs in the Silicon Valley. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Infotech/ITeS/Hilla...

[rinsd]

15. Ohhh a subject change.

Guess I scored.

Obama on h1B visas

Do you support enacting federal laws providing for any or all of the following: a) a permanent research-and-development tax credit, b) a permanent moratorium on Internet access taxes, and c) an increase in the current limits on H-1B visas?
Obama: a) Yes.
b) Yes.
c) Highly skilled immigrants have contributed significantly to our domestic technology industry. But we have a skills shortage, not a worker shortage. There are plenty of Americans who could be filling tech jobs, given the proper training. I am committed to investing in communities and people who have not had an opportunity to work and participate in the Internet economy as anything other than consumers.

Most H-1B new arrivals, for example, have earned a bachelor's degree or its equivalent abroad (42.5 percent). They are not all Ph.D.s. We can and should produce more Americans with bachelor's degrees that lead to jobs in technology.

A report of the National Science Foundation reveals that blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans as a whole comprise more that 25 percent of the population but earn, as a whole, 16 percent of the bachelor degrees, 11 percent of the master's degrees, and 5 percent of the doctorate degrees in science and engineering.

We can do better than that and go a long way toward meeting industry's need for skilled workers with Americans. Until we have achieved that, I will support a temporary increase in the H-1B visa program as a stopgap measure until we can reform our immigration system comprehensively.

I support comprehensive immigration reform that includes improvement in our visa programs, including our legal permanent-resident visa programs and temporary programs including the H-1B program, to attract some of the world's most talented people to America.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6224109.html

You would have thought Obama supporters would have learned from the embarrassing Hillary (D-Punjab) memo that Obama had to apologize for.

[caligirl]

16. Not about scoring unless that was your point all along? The point was to answer

th Op question, what is a present vote about. In the context of what Republicans were doing<they were in charge then, the article in a single instance explained it. Few states allow a present vote and many Hillary supporters are trying to make political hay about them as being against or less for abortion rights. Your attempt to turn this thread into explaining every present vote goes beyond the original posters question of what a present vote is about. I don';t have to do research for you so you can say you scored points. Obama used democratic approved strategy in some votes and not so much in others, some had poison pills. Make of it what you will. It won't help you support a candidate owned by corporate boards.

[Big Blue Marble]

9. it was not the Democratic legislators who were attempting to confuse the voters.

In fact, in Illinois it was quite common for Democratic legislators to vote present to Republican bills to keep the Republicans from
using the Dems votes against them in later campaigns as Republicans love to do.

[AX10]

3. It means you don't have the balls to vote yes or no.

Like Obama.

[PresidentObama]

5. Out of his total present votes, however, how many were controversial issues?

[PresidentObama]

7. It'd be interesting to get an Obama supporters view on this....

I'm not trying to stir the shit pot, but what gives?

[caligirl]

11. repugs trying to stir the shit in Illinois thats what gives. They were trying

to stick antiabortion shit into mailers to hurt dems chances of reelection by twisting words and pushing for votes on bills that hurt a womans right to choose.

[caligirl]

8. Whats behind the present votes: attempts at pigeon holing by repugs

In an unusual pre-emptive conference call with reporters the Obama campaign today defended his series of “present” votes on abortion measures in the Illinois State Senate.
The votes were actually part of a strategy developed by Planned Parenthood to stop Republican attacks on pro-choice candidates. “We had a very astute and devious Republican leader that we knew was using abortion votes as wedge issues, putting those votes into mailers to help defeat pro-choice Democrats,” Pam Sutherland, president and CEO of Illinois Planned Parenthood, told reporters on the call. “It was our strategy, Planned Parenthood’s, to decide that a “present” vote was the same thing as a “no” vote.”
Then-State Senator Obama “was always ready to vote “no” on these bills but he understood how it important it was to help his fellow colleagues,” Sutherland continued. Obama “was key to the strategy… not only did Democrats follow suit, so did many Republicans. The strategy actually worked… very few of those bills actually made it into law.”
Sutherland underlined that Planned Parenthood was not endorsing Obama or any other candidate but they felt it was important to defend his record since he was acting at their behest. Hillary Clinton’s campaign in New Hampshire on January 5th sent out a mailing criticizing Obama as “"unwilling to take a stand on choice” because he voted “present” on the GOP–sponsored measures.
When asked by a reporter if there are any new mailings or attacks that prompted the call, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor replied: “We saw misinformation being spread to people in New Hampshire and Senator Obama feels that when we see misinformation being spread we should respond forcefully with the truth and that’s what we’re doing today.” Campaign sources said the call was pre-emptive because they were concerned about the possibility of further attacks on this issue.

from Time.com

[Nailzberg]

12. To understand, you first must understand the Amendatory Veto

When you see Senators in the IL General Assembly voting present, it usually means they do not take issue with the bill, but merely a part of it.

Illinois is one of the few states that gives the Governor an amendatory veto, meaning the Governor can amend a bill at signing, and the Assembly requires a 3/5 vote to override such changes.

For instance, SB759 - frequently cited as a "troublesome" present vote memos about Obama - was the bill that increased penalties for carrying handguns around public schools, Obama and others voted present, and then lobbied the Governor to change the adult charge age from 15 to 16. They weren't against the bill per se, however they requested this change because the Assembly had recently overhauled the juvenile justice codes, and this brought the bill closer in line with those changes. The Republican Governor agreed and passed it with an amendatory veto.

Each present vote has a story. It's just part of legislative process in Illinois.


on edit: As many have pointed out, Obama also used them in the situation with Planned Parenthood, where present votes helped provide smokescreen for more vulnerable members. This strategy was effective because of the more common usage of present votes I've explained above.