Louie Gohmert: “It is amazing sometimes the way, in the heat of dispute, argument--sometimes any of us can have it happen to us--people…”

“It is amazing sometimes the way, in the heat of dispute, argument--sometimes any of us can have it happen to us--people don't think clearly. I have been here for nearly 11\1/2\ years in Congress. It is a tremendous honor to get to be the servant for the people of east Texas. But in that 11\1/2\ years, 4 of them the Democrats were in the majority, and my friend from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) was the majority leader during those 4 years, and the rules never changed with regard to how the electronic voting worked. For the last 11\1/2\ years, it has always been the same. And that is, we could take our voting card--and it has a little computer chip in it. It doesn't matter which we way put our card in the box. If the blue light on the box is lit, it means that box is open for voting. Most every other row has a voting box on the back. We take our card, and we put it in the slot whichever way. It recognizes the one-of-a-kind computer chip that belongs to that 1 of 435 Members, and then you can hit the green button for ``yea,'' the red button the ``nay,'' the yellow button for ``present.'' The blue light is on there. It is next in order on the box, but it can't be pushed. It just lets you know the box is open for voting. Toward the end of a vote, particularly a 15-minute vote, the Speaker will not have gaveled the vote dead, but oftentimes the box goes dead right before the gavel comes down.…”