Return to the Guide to the Utah Legislature.
The Utah legislature employs committees to weed out (or heavily amend) most "bad" bills before they reach the floor of the Utah House or Senate. Because bills don't generally make it to the floor without committee approval, bills don't generally come to a floor vote unless they have achieved some measure of consensus. As a result, party-line votes and "no" votes are surprisingly rare in the Utah legislature.
Moreover, the Legislature processes bills at an unbelievable pace. Toward the end of each year's 7-week session, legislators vote on dozens of bills per day—and hundreds in the session's final week. As a result, many bills get only a couple minutes of floor discussion before coming to a vote. We know from research on Congress that when rank-and-file legislators lack time to learn about a bill, they defer to others. Many of the patterns seen below can be directly attributed to the Utah Legislature's rushed pace.
A "party-line vote" occurs when a majority of Republicans vote one way and a majority of Democrats vote the other way. If the majority of Republicans votes with the majority of Democrats, then it is not a party-line vote. The numbers below suggest that the Utah Senate is generally less partisan than the Utah House, but neither sees many party-line votes.
| Year | Utah House | Utah Senate |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 13% | 6% |
| 2008 | 9% | 6% |
| 2009 | 13% | 7% |
| 2010 | 12% | 7% |
| 2011 | 16% | 8% |
| 2012 | 14% | 7% |
| 2013 | 12% | 6% |
| 2014 | 10% | 5% |
| 2015 | 13% | 7% |
| 2016 | 14% | 6% |
| 2017 | 13% | 6% |
| 2018 | 10% | 5% |
| 2019 | 11% | 5% |
| 2020 | 9% | 4% |
| 2021 | 14% | 7% |
| 2022 | 10% | 4% |
| 2023 | 14% | 9% |
| 2024 | 13% | 10% |
The "size of the voting majority" is the percent of legislators voting on the winning side in a vote. If 20 Senators vote "no" and 9 vote "yes," then 69% were in the voting majority. It does not matter whether the majority voted "yes" or "no" for these calculations.
| Year | Utah House | Utah Senate |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 93% | 96% |
| 2008 | 94% | 96% |
| 2009 | 92% | 96% |
| 2010 | 93% | 95% |
| 2011 | 92% | 96% |
| 2012 | 92% | 95% |
| 2013 | 93% | 96% |
| 2014 | 93% | 96% |
| 2015 | 92% | 95% |
| 2016 | 93% | 96% |
| 2017 | 93% | 97% |
| 2018 | 94% | 97% |
| 2019 | 94% | 97% |
| 2020 | 94% | 98% |
| 2021 | 92% | 96% |
| 2022 | 94% | 97% |
| 2023 | 93% | 97% |
| 2024 | 94% | 96% |
Many votes pass the Utah legislature by overwhelmingly large margins, with Republicans and Democrats coming to consensus on a bill. Here, I present the percentage of votes where at least 90% of those voting were on the same side.
| Year | Utah House | Utah Senate |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 77% | 85% |
| 2008 | 79% | 85% |
| 2009 | 76% | 85% |
| 2010 | 76% | 84% |
| 2011 | 70% | 86% |
| 2012 | 75% | 83% |
| 2013 | 76% | 87% |
| 2014 | 77% | 88% |
| 2015 | 75% | 82% |
| 2016 | 76% | 86% |
| 2017 | 76% | 89% |
| 2018 | 78% | 88% |
| 2019 | 78% | 89% |
| 2020 | 79% | 91% |
| 2021 | 74% | 85% |
| 2022 | 79% | 89% |
| 2023 | 77% | 87% |
| 2024 | 80% | 84% |
It's rare for a vote to fail on the floor of the Utah House or Senate. Shown here is the percentage of votes each year that did not pass.
| Year | Utah House | Utah Senate |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 3.2% | 1.1% |
| 2008 | 2.9% | 0.9% |
| 2009 | 3.5% | 0.7% |
| 2010 | 2.3% | 2.0% |
| 2011 | 2.2% | 1.2% |
| 2012 | 2.2% | 1.5% |
| 2013 | 4.0% | 1.0% |
| 2014 | 3.3% | 1.2% |
| 2015 | 4.4% | 1.3% |
| 2016 | 2.7% | 1.3% |
| 2017 | 2.3% | 0.7% |
| 2018 | 2.9% | 1.1% |
| 2019 | 2.7% | 0.4% |
| 2020 | 3.2% | 0.7% |
| 2021 | 3.5% | 1.5% |
| 2022 | 3.1% | 0.6% |
| 2023 | 3.9% | 1.4% |
| 2024 | 2.6% | 0.9% |
Legislators rarely leave the capitol during the session, but they frequently leave the floor for a few minutes at a time, which may cause them to miss a vote. Here, I show the average absentee rate (that is, the percent of legislators missing any given vote) by year.
| Year | Utah House | Utah Senate |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 8% | 9% |
| 2008 | 8% | 10% |
| 2009 | 6% | 11% |
| 2010 | 7% | 12% |
| 2011 | 7% | 14% |
| 2012 | 6% | 10% |
| 2013 | 6% | 11% |
| 2014 | 6% | 12% |
| 2015 | 6% | 12% |
| 2016 | 6% | 14% |
| 2017 | 5% | 10% |
| 2018 | 8% | 13% |
| 2019 | 6% | 11% |
| 2020 | 7% | 12% |
| 2021 | 6% | 8% |
| 2022 | 6% | 12% |
| 2023 | 6% | 13% |
| 2024 | 7% | 13% |
