From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms
Teller Vote
photo credit: wjarrettcThis is a largely moribund procedure in the House in the Committee of the Whole. Members file past tellers and are counted as for, or against, a measure, but they are not recorded individually. In the House, teller votes are ordered upon demand on one-fifth of a quorum. This is 44 in the House, 20 in the Committee of the Whole.
House vote on health bill
Votes by tellers with clerks, in which each member fills out and signs a vote tally card and submits it to a designated clerk teller (House Rule XX clause 4). The recorded teller vote in the House is now largely supplanted by the electronic voting procedure, under which the votes of each member are made public just as they would be on a recorded vote.
Also see Committee of the Whole (CongressionalGlossary.com); House; § 6.130, House Floor: Voting, in Congressional Deskbook.
More
- “House Voting Procedures: Forms and Requirements,” CRS Report 98-228 (9-page PDF
) - “Electronic Voting System in the House of Representatives,” CRS Report RL34366 (30-page PDF)
- “Congressional Roll Call and other Record Votes,” CRS Report RL30562 (18-page PDF)
- “Record Voting in the House of Representatives: Issues and Options,” CRS Report RL34570 (175-page PDF)
- “Parliament and Congress: A Brief Comparison of the British House of Commons and the U.S. House of Representatives,” CRS Report RL32206 (22-page PDF)
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