United States
In the United States Congress, divisions are used, but not in the same manner as in the British Parliament. In Congress, lobbies are not used, and the division is not a final determination of the question. The vote is first taken by voice vote, as is the case in Parliament. Then, any member may demand a division. If a division is demanded, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives (or, more commonly, a Representative of the majority party designed by the Speaker to preside as Speaker pro tempore) or the Presiding Officer of the Senate asks those voting Yea to rise and remain standing until counted, and then asks those voting Nay to do the same.
(The Vice President of the United States is constitutionally designated as the President of the United States Senate, and the Senate President pro tempore of the United States presides over its sessions or appoints another senator to do so when the Vice President does not preside. Ordinarily, neither the Vice President nor the president pro tempore preside, but instead the president pro tempore appoints a junior Senator of the majority party to preside).
A recorded vote must take place upon the demand of one-fifth of members present under Article I, Section 5 of the United States Constitution: "the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal." In the Senate, a recorded vote is accomplished by the clerk's call of the roll. In the House, a electronic voting device is typically used to take recorded votes, although occasionally roll calls take place.
Read more about this topic: Division Of The Assembly
Famous quotes related to united states:
“It was evident that, both on account of the feudal system and the aristocratic government, a private man was not worth so much in Canada as in the United States; and, if your wealth in any measure consists in manliness, in originality and independence, you had better stay here. How could a peaceable, freethinking man live neighbor to the Forty-ninth Regiment? A New-Englander would naturally be a bad citizen, probably a rebel, there,—certainly if he were already a rebel at home.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The United States is the only great nation whose government is operated without a budget. The fact is to be the more striking when it is considered that budgets and budget procedures are the outgrowth of democratic doctrines and have an important part in developing the modern constitutional rights.... The constitutional purpose of a budget is to make government responsive to public opinion and responsible for its acts.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“The House of Lords, architecturally, is a magnificent room, and the dignity, quiet, and repose of the scene made me unwillingly acknowledge that the Senate of the United States might possibly improve its manners. Perhaps in our desire for simplicity, absence of title, or badge of office we may have thrown over too much.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makes a fetish of competition. In America, this system is carried to the point where a man who can knock a small white ball into a series of holes in the ground with more efficiency than anyone else thereby gains social access to the President of the United States.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)
“Madam, I may be President of the United States, but my private life is nobody’s damn business.”
—Chester A. Arthur (1829–1886)