The leadership of the House Judiciary Committee nullified the valid votes of members of the General Assembly last

night, and both democracy and the people of Rhode Island are the poorer for it. In the words of the House Majority Leader's legal counsel, "the rules matter," but that is only if the rules are followed--in nullifying votes, they were not. We believe this decision, that House leadership has itself labeled unprecedented, to erase the votes of democratically elected representatives disenfranchises the constituents of Representatives Almeida, Ajello, Blazejewski, Costa, Craven, Martin and Walsh. The House leadership's justification for this unprecedented action contorts a plain reading of their own rules. Their belief that a motion cannot be made on a resolution that has been held for further study, in our view, is simply wrong. It represents a hastily formulated post hoc justification for eviscerating legitimately cast committee votes. Even if there is ambiguity in the rules, which we believe there is not, Common Cause believes that the committee leadership should have erred on not taking this unprecedented step to nullify the vote. The resolution should have been sent to the floor and House leadership should have attempted to recommit the bill to the Judiciary Committee. In other words, they should have erred on the side of democracy, not dictatorship. ####