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Utah Senate rules require each bill to pass two separate floor votes, at least 24 hours apart, to pass out of the chamber. (Utah House rules require only a single floor vote.) Let's see what impact this rule has.
To clarify terminology: Because a bill's introduction is known as its "First Reading," these two votes are known as the "Second Reading" (first floor vote) and "Third Reading" (second floor vote) of a bill. (Bills also undergo three "readings" as they move through the Utah House, but receive a floor vote only during the "Third Reading.")
The requirement to vote twice on each bill comes from the Utah Senate's internal rules, not from the Utah Constitution, which means the Utah Senate can waive this requirement for any bill. There are two common ways this happens. First, a senator can move to temporarily suspend this rule for a particular bill—something that happens routinely in the final days of the 7-week General Session. Also, bills with unanimous support out of committee can bypass this requirement through the streamlined Consent Calendar process.
The following chart shows the share of enrolled bills and resolutions that received separate Second Reading and Third Reading votes in the Utah Senate during the 2024 General Session. "Enrolled" means it passed the Legislature and was sent to the governor for a signature if required. I omit House Resolutions, which require no Senate action. Only around half of bills receive both required votes.
Bills that pass their Senate Second Reading vote nearly always pass their Senate Third Reading vote. (This chart uses only bills that had one of each kind of vote. If a bill had two Third Reading votes under a motion to reconsider, it is not shown.)
This does not mean every bill that passed its Second Reading later became law. Many bills make some progress but fail to get all the way through the legislative process before the General Session ends. Others clear the Senate but die in the House. For bills that passed their Second Reading votes in recent years (orange bars), this chart shows the number that made it to a Senate Third Reading vote (blue bars) and ultimately were passed ("enrolled," green bars). Most bills that clear a Senate Second Reading vote pass.
The most common switching is between "absent" and "yes." Senators who miss either the Second Reading vote or Third Reading vote nearly always vote "yes" on the other. This makes sense: Typically, the senators who miss the most votes are also the senators who vote "nay" the least—that is, majority party leadership and budget chairs—which produces this aggregate pattern.
There is no similar relationship between absences and "nay" votes.
Omitting absences, there is minimal other vote switching. Senators who vote "yes" or "no" on the Second Reading nearly always vote the same way on the Third Reading.
This turns out to be such a complicated query that running it crashes my server, but I have this if you're doing research and would like me to email you the table.
