Sixteen Democratic women running to make change in both chambers of the Massachusetts Legislature\u00a0publicly pledged to push for greater government transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n
\u201cI pledge to stand for roll calls and\u00a0to advocate for greater transparency and accountability within the Massachusetts Legislature. Elected leaders should\u00a0be on record, supporting or opposing proposals on Beacon Hill.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Presently, roll calls are the way legislators publicly vote on bills. In a roll call vote, each legislator is asked to vote \u201cyea\u201d or \u201cnay\u201d on the bill at issue and each vote is published, on the record. Roll call votes are not mandatory, and occur\u00a0when requested and supported by at least ten percent (10%) of elected Representatives or one-fifth (\u2155) of the\u00a0Senators present. Without a legislator requesting a roll call and sufficient support for that roll call, a voice vote\u00a0proceeds, yielding unrecorded, essentially secret votes.<\/p>\n
All sixteen women pledge-signers are running to make government work for the people of their districts, spanning the entire Commonwealth. Central to the idea of a \u201cgovernment for the people\u201d is that the people actually know what\u00a0their legislators do and how they vote on the various policies before them. In addition to the Transparency Pledge,\u00a0several of these women have stated they would vote to make the public records law applicable to the Legislature.<\/p>\n