On Sept. 24 and 25, Rep. Betty McCollum was attending her son's wedding in Japan when Congress took 12 votes. Nine months earlier, Rep. Rick Nolan faced "ongoing issues surrounding the health of my youngest daughter" and missed nine votes in the House. Then-Rep. Michele Bachmann cited vague "responsibilities within my district" for a string of votes she missed from May 6 through May 9 of 2014.
In all these cases, the Minnesota lawmakers later filed what are called "Personal Explanations" to say how they would have voted on the missed votes, and — if they want — explain why they were absent.
ProPublica has compiled all of these Personal Explanations since 2007 into a single database that tracks how many votes current members of Congress have missed and makes all their explanations easily viewable.
None of Minnesota's representatives come close to worst attendance records in Congress, such as Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush, who has missed 22.4 percent of all votes since 2007.
Screenshot of ProPublica's website tracking missed votes by members of Congress, showing the missed vote percentage for Minnesota's delegation.
But of Minnesota's current House members, Democrats have missed more votes than Republicans. All five Democratic members of Minnesota's delegation have a higher miss percentage than the three Republican members. Rep. Keith Ellison leads the way with 5.9 percent of votes missed since 2007, while new Rep. Tom Emmer has, so far, the best attendance record with 0.2 percent of votes missed.
Ellison's communications director Brett Morrow said Ellison's missed votes could be explained by medical issues and family events.
"Several years ago, the congressman had reconstructive surgery which limited his ability to travel during vote days," Morrow said in a statement. "Over the years, he has also occasionally missed votes due to family events or emergencies. Regardless, he is 100 percent committed to working for the people of the Fifth Congressional district and will continue to do so in Washington, D.C., day in and day out."
Before she left office, however, Bachmann had a similar record of missing votes to some of the Democrats in office. She filed 49 Personal Explanations, the same number as Rep. Betty McCollum and far more than Nolan or Rep. Tim Walz. Because Bachmann is no longer in Congress, ProPublica doesn't have a page showing the percentage of total votes she missed.
Because of how Congress is scheduled, missing a day of congressional work could go completely unnoticed — or, if it happens to fall in the middle of a major voting day, be very noticeable. One day away tending to his daughter's health issues cost Nolan nine missed votes, while Bachmann missed 22 votes to attend her daughter's college graduation in May 2012.
One-quarter of all Personal Explanations filed by Minnesota representatives list no clear reason for the missed vote. Common reasons cited for missing include medical matters (19 percent), personal or family matters (19 percent), official business (15 percent) and attending memorial services (10 percent).
ProPublica notes that missing votes "can be a graceful way to dodge votes designed to put lawmakers on the spot," but that they can also open up a lawmaker to attack from political opponents.
On several occasions, representatives file Personal Explanations because they voted incorrectly. Since 2007 Minnesota representatives have said this happened 10 times, six of them by Ellison.
See the full database here, and an explanation of the project here. Any Minnesota lawmaker's page, such as Rep. John Kline's, will contain a list of the rest of the state's representatives on the left.
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