Capitol Questions Senate roll call votes confuse me. They all just seem to mill around. Oakland, New Jersey Voting procedures in the Senate are a combination of formal procedures and informal practices, but there is method to the madness. A roll call vote in the Senate is known officially as the yeas and nays, a term derived from U.S. Senate Floor Article 1 in the Constitution. Once a vote is ordered, the Senate s Legislative Clerk calls the roll aloud, in alphabetical order.
Few Senators tend to be around to answer to their name at precisely the right place in the alphabet.
The Clerk then calls the roll a second time, pausing to take Senators out of order as they either approach the desk or give a hand signal from the door of the cloakroom, from their desks, or elsewhere on the floor. The signal is usually a thumbs up or down. During this second roll call, you will notice that the Clerk may read several Senators names rather quickly and others more slowly. The ones read at a faster pace are the ones whose votes he has already noted. The others are read at a slower pace because he usually pauses to look up to see if they are present to give him a hand signal.