Division of the assembly
In the United Kingdom, division bells are also present in a number of bars and restaurants near the Palace of Westminster in order to call members to vote who may be outside the building.
[2] In the Australian House of Representatives divisions follow a form similar to that of the United Kingdom, but the requirements are generally more stringent.
Bells are rung throughout the Parliament Buildings for either 15 or 30 minutes to allow all present MPs time to enter the chamber and take their seats.
[7] The division begins with the whips from both the government and the official opposition bowing to the Speaker and each other before returning to their seats.
There are no division lobbies in the House of Commons, so each member votes by simply standing up from his or her seat.
[7] In the German Bundestag and some state parliaments the president can call for the so-called Hammelsprung (literally, wether’s leap) if an undisputed majority couldn't be established by either MPs raising their hands or standing in order to cast their votes.
In this voting procedure the MPs leave the plenary hall and re-enter through one of three doors designated for "yes“ (ja), "abstention" (enthaltung), or "no" (nein).
According to the Duden dictionary, the expression refers to the MPs grouping themselves like sheep behind their respective bellwethers before re-entering the chamber.
In 1894 the architect of the new Reichstag building made a reference to the Hammelsprung: above the door for "yes", he depicted Ulysses and his friends escaping from Polyphemus.
In Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas, a division is a formal count that can be called for if a voice vote is deemed insufficient.
[10] In the Dáil the Ceann Comhairle (chair) puts the question and TDs (deputies) present say the Irish word tá (yes) or níl (no) respectively if they agree or disagree.
[22][23] Ballots were distributed and submitted in the assembly chamber, then removed for counting; Dáil results were announced by the Ceann Comhairle in the chamber, whereas the Seanad adjourned for the day and allowed its Cathaoirleach (chair) to announce the results to the press that evening.
News media reported that the Ceann Comhairle would propose suspending electronic voting pending investigation.
The clerk's review and recommended changes to procedure was endorsed and published by the committee on 24 October, and debated in the Dáil chamber the same day.
[27] In the New Zealand House of Representatives, division of the assembly occurs when the result of a voice vote on a motion is split, and a member disagrees with the Speaker's call.
[28] A personal vote is used mainly for conscience issues, and follows similar procedures to other Westminster systems.
[28] An unusual division occurred on 30 August 2012, simulating an exhaustive ballot for a three-way conscience vote on New Zealand's legal drinking age.
The practice of voting by division seems to derive from the layout of St Stephen's Chapel, the meeting place of the House of Commons before the fire of 1834.
After the fire destroyed St Stephen's Chapel, the House of Commons Chamber was rebuilt with two lobbies, one for Ayes and one for Noes.
In this case it was a division that took place on 27 February 1771 when a non-MP (known as a 'stranger'), Thomas Hunt, was included in the 'Noes' vote.
[32] The division bell then sounds across the Parliamentary Estate as well as several buildings in the vicinity, such as restaurants and pubs.
A recent development has been the use of pagers and mobile phones by party whips, to summon members from further afield.
They are then counted by the two tellers as they leave the lobby; the numbers they record are the definitive result of the division.
Until 2020, the names of Members voting in each lobby were recorded by clerks rather than electronic systems, but this procedure was reformed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
[36] It is stipulated that all Members of Parliament are required to stay in or around the premises of the House of Commons until the main business of the day has ended, however long that may be.
The question may be repeated as many times as the Lord Speaker pleases; the process is referred to as "collecting the voices".
[1] According to Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR), the numbers for and against are not counted in a division.
[41] 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 House, an electronic voting device is typically used to take recorded votes, although occasionally roll calls take place; the House is historically too large to conduct roll calls on a regular basis (435 members versus 100 in the Senate).
When voting to override a Presidential veto, the yeas and nays are required under Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution.
