Carson’s ‘ghost-voting’ raises health questions

Aides and colleagues regularly cast votes on Rep. Julia Carson’s (D-Ind.) behalf, raising questions about the congresswoman’s deteriorating health.

{mosads}Carson is 69 years old and her health has visibly declined in the last several years. She uses a wheelchair to move about the Capitol and requires the assistance of one or two aides while on the House floor. Several lawmakers said her mind is sharp, but she tires easily.

“On those rare days when I think I need a little help, I feel so blessed that there are 434 other members of the House who are willing to lend a hand when I cast my vote,” Carson said in a statement. “It is, however, my vote.”

She told The Indianapolis Star last month that she intends to run for reelection in 2008.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) helped Carson avoid missing a vote last Thursday, when he took her voting card from her, returned to the House floor and cast her ballot. Carson had entered the Capitol from the east and would have had to climb several steps to get to the floor.

DeFazio said he asked Carson how she wanted to vote and she answered with a “lucid ‘yes.’”

“In addition to just being a gentlemanly thing to do, it is my understanding that assisting an infirm member in this manner is consistent with the rules of the House,” DeFazio said.

During another series of votes last week, an aide pulled Carson’s voting card from his suit pocket and inserted the card into the voting box to cast her vote.

It is common for lawmakers to hand their cards to a colleague sitting closest to the voting box to let them cast their votes, but House rules ban lawmakers from “authorizing” another person to cast their vote.

Carson is absent this week, said lawmakers and aides.

After being questioned for this story, Carson’s press secretary, Chad Chitwood, said he contacted the House ethics committee and the parliamentarian. Officials in both offices said Carson had complied with the “intent” of the rule.

“The conversations with the Parliamentarian’s office and the Ethics Committee were very clear that there was no concern over any assistance she received on the floor,” Chitwood wrote in an e-mail. “If she directs the action and observes that it was completed as requested they seem comfortable with it.”

Questions about Carson’s health have dogged her since she arrived in Congress a decade ago. She had double-bypass heart surgery following the 1996 election and missed a number of votes. The Indianapolis Star reported in 2004 that she battles diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure, and that year she missed 40 percent of House votes. She was in a car collision in 2005.

When members of the House were sworn into office earlier this year, Carson did not stand, said lawmakers who were nearby. Carson, however, is not deterred.

Carson has faced energetic challenges from Republican candidates in her increasingly affluent district, but has managed to pull away at the end with solid victories. In 2002, Carson won by 10 points against a strong GOP opponent. In 2006, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent some money on the race after polls showed her Republican opponent within striking distance.

The practice of “ghost-voting,” or letting another member vote, is rare. The House reprimanded former Rep. Austin Murphy (D-Pa.) in 1987 for the practice of ghost-voting and for other offenses. In addition, proxy voting was banned on the House floor in the early 1970s and in committees in 1995.

Neither practice, however, quite applies to Carson’s situation because she is present when others are voting for her. The House and Senate have never forced a lawmaker to resign due to poor health, according to Senate Historian Donald Ritchie.

In 1980, then-Rep. Gladys Noon Spellman (D-Md.) suffered a heart attack during her campaign and was in a coma when she won reelection. She was never sworn into office and her family withdrew her as a contender, Ritchie said. A young Maryland state lawmaker named Steny Hoyer, now the Democratic majority leader, won Spellman’s seat in a special election.