PAIRING OF MEMBERS

 The former system of pairing of Members, where a Member could arrange in advance to be recorded as being either in favor of or opposed to the question by being ‘‘paired’’ with another absent Member who holds contrary views on the question, has largely been eliminated.

The rules still allow for ‘‘live pairs’’. A live pair is where a Member votes as if not paired, subsequently withdraws that vote, and then asks to be marked ‘‘present’’ to protect the other Member.

The most common practice is for absent Members to submit statements for the Record stating how they would have voted if present on specific votes.

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