What Are the Four Types of Votes in the House of Representatives?
The four types of votes in the House of Representatives are voice, roll-call, standing and recorded votes. In the Senate, only voice and roll-call votes are used.
A voice vote occurs when the presiding officer asks in turn for members to call out “yea” or “nay” in support or opposition of a bill. This is the fastest way to take a vote, but it is imprecise. In a roll-call vote, the presiding officer calls on each representative to determine the votes one at a time.
A recorded vote, which can only take place in the House of Representatives and has a special electronic voting system, allows the votes of each member to be counted faster than does a roll-call vote. A standing vote is occasionally taken in the House of Representatives by having the members stand and be counted in either support or opposition.
