Assembly Voting Available Online

Every member of the House has already sponsored a rule that will be adopted in due course. In the meantime, it’s already being followed.

Roll call votes from the House must now be posted within 72 hours of the vote at www.arkleg.state.ar.us, the Assembly’s official Web site. Current bills under consideration are already updated daily at the site.

State Rep. Bill Pritchard, R-Elkins, is one of several Northwest Arkansas legislators who said they were glad their votes will be available on the Internet.

“I ran for this seat two times before, and it was difficult to find out how my opponent had voted on individual bills,” Pritchard said. “I had to do a lot of leg work and it took a lot of time to find those things out.

“I think this is a good way for both legislators and citizens to keep up with how representatives and senators have voted. The only reason someone wouldn’t support this is if they didn’t want their constituents back home to know how they voted.”

Judy agreed that publishing votes on the Internet is the best way to keep her constituency informed, since many people in her district are avid online surfers.

The Senate is mulling a similar bill. The House version states that because it is a function of a democratic society for the public to be informed, and because technology is so readily available, Internet publishing just makes sense.

Malone, the third-highest ranking member of the Senate, said he hopes Arkansas winds up with a coordinated network of information technology officers at all of its state agencies. That would streamline technology and resources, he said, and ultimately save the people of Arkansas money.

Malone said the CIO post would likely be filed by June or July.