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Madeleine Baran
St. Paul, Minn.

Bachmann, Ellison missed more than 10 percent of House votes

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Reps. Michele Bachmann and Keith Ellison have missed over 10 percent of all House votes this session, according to a Washington Post tally.

Bachmann, who represents Minnesota's 6th Congressional District, missed 13.6 percent of all votes, the eleventh-highest percentage in the House.

The Republican congresswoman has missed 105 votes and cast 669 since the 111th Congress first convened this January.

A spokesperson for Bachmann said the missed votes were due to two deaths in the family. Bachmann did not vote on May 20 and 21, and from June 15 to 19.

"While Congresswoman Bachmann was away for the funeral in June, Congress was debating an appropriations bill and there were many procedural votes taken to protest the lack of an open rule, which is the traditional mechanism for spending debate," said deputy press secretary Rachel Horn. "Under any other circumstances, voting on her constituents' behalf is a priority task."

Bachmann's rate was followed closely by DFL Rep. Keith Ellison, of Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, who cast 695 votes and missed 78. At 10.1 percent, Ellison's missed vote rate is the 23rd highest in the House.

Rick Jauert, Ellison's communications director, said the high rate came from a flurry of unexpected procedural votes on June 18, when Ellison attended his son's graduation from the AmeriCorps program City Year Miami. Ellison missed 53 votes that day.

"There were not supposed to be significant votes scheduled that day, and the Republicans engaged in procedural votes," Jauert said. "So they ran up the vote totals."

The rest of Minnesota's Congressional delegation had better voting attendance. Rep. Betty McCollum missed 2.1 percent of votes; Rep. Collin Peterson missed 1.9 percent; Rep. John Kline missed 1.6 percent; Rep. James Oberstar missed 1.3 percent; Rep. Timothy Walz missed 0.9 percent; Rep. Erik Paulsen missed 0.8 percent.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar missed 1.3 percent of votes. Sen. Al Franken has the state's only perfect record. He has not missed any votes since being sworn into office on July 7.