By Katherine Gregg, Journal State House Bureau

Here's a thought to chew on: Members of the state Senate do not actually have to be present - and voting - to have their "votes'' recorded in the official Senate Journal as if they had actually been present and voting.

This practice was brought to light by Sen. Leonidas Raptakis, D-Coventry, after he was reflected as not voting Tuesday on the 25-to-10 machine vote for the high-profile bill requiring live dog-races and allowing 24-hour gambling, seven days a week at Twin River, and then as having voted in the negative on the bill in the Senate Journal that came out a day later.

Raptakis thinks he may have been racing up the State House stairs when the vote went down, having rushed to Smith Hill from an earlier event at the University of Rhode Island.

But he says he isn't really sure because by the time he arrived in the chamber, the Senate was already two to three items down on its calendar.

So how did he get recorded as present and voting "no'' on the dog-racing, 24-hour gambling bill when he was not there?

After he had settled in, Raptakis said he simply asked the clerk, Joseph Brady, to add his missed "votes'' to the tallies for the first three bills on the calendar.

Asked how he would explain this to a member of the public who might view a "vote'' as evidence of actual attendance, Raptakis cited a Senate rule titled: "Who May Vote.''

It says: "Any member who is present in the Senate chamber must vote. Any senator who is not in the chamber at such time, but who returns before the machine is locked, shall be permitted to vote. With unanimous consent, a senator may be permitted to cast a vote after the results have been announced, provided however such request shall be made on the same legislative day and, only if the vote if so permitted, will not change the result previously announced.''

But Raptakis acknowledges he was not in the chamber when the Twin River bill came up, and did not request - or receive - unanimous consent to have his votes counted toward that bill or the two that followed involving sex-offender registration and insurance.

But maybe, he suggests, there was no such rule in effect because Senate leaders had "suspended all the rules'' days earlier for what they thought would be the final days of this year's unfinished legislative session.

Asked for an explanation, Senate spokesman Greg Pare said what happened was not, in fact, uncommon.

"A senator may temporarily be away from his or her desk and subsequently ask to be recorded on a matter, or even ask to be recorded while the vote is ongoing but he or she is across the room and unable to press the appropriate button at his or her desk.

Such votes are recorded in the official record, which is the Senate Journal not the unofficial machine tally. I hope this clarifies things for you.''

When asked what specific rule allowed the absent Raptakis to cast his vote after the fact, Pare said: "Sen. Raptakis was in attendance [Tuesday]... Any senator would have to be present in order to ask that their vote be recorded.'' He said he had no further information, and was unable to obtain any.
˜