I have some questions about voting procedures in the Senate, and specifically about the absence of Sen. Tim Johnson during his medical recovery. Apparently the RWCM was only interested with this story when it concerned the possibility of a man's death, and how quickly the Republicans could regain control of the Senate.
I have been having much difficulty finding this type of information anywhere, and figured that some of the brilliant minds here at DailyKos would readily know this information, so I am posing questions here.
The purpose behind my questions is that I have read many stories here (and elsewhere) which discuss which senators might be targeted to vote one way or another on a particular issue in order for each side to get the vote total it needs. Often, these "head-counts" start with 100 and count down rather than starting with 0 and counting up; that is, they might state that only 40 senators would vote against cloture rather than stating that 60 would vote for it. Problem is, these figures are based upon the Senate having 100 voting members, which currently it does not. And thus saying something like Republicans only have 40 votes which is not enough to avoid cloture is not accurate, because in reality the other side only has 59 votes, not 60.
So without further ado, here are my questions:
- Is there any type of voting or participation on Senate matters that a senator can normally do from outside the Senate chambers, or are there any special excemptions to allow for this?
- Is there a point during a senator's absence at which either the Senate, the senator's state, or any other government official can "force" that senator to retire his seat due to prolonged vacancy? In other words, does Sen. Johnson have a "recovery deadline"?
- Are the number of votes required for cloture and for over-riding a veto "fixed" values (60 and 67), or are they fractional values (3/5 and 2/3). If they are fractions, what number are they calculated against: 100, the senators currently present, or something else?
If you know the answers to these, or know a good reference for information about this, the please let me know. I think that the answers to these will help me - and hopefully others - more accurately describe these types of discussions, where 1 vote in the Senate can greatly affect the outcome.
Thanks in advance for any help you give.