§ 100. “Quorum.”
“The [American] Constitution does not expressly provide as to how the presence of a quorum shall be determined; but it seems to me to imply, in the power of each House to force the presence of members in order to form a quorum, that physical presence is the test, whether or no the members present all act. Such has not been the general practice, however, to this time. It has been regarded as necessary that a quorum shall not merely be present, but shall also act.” (Burgess, vol. II, p. 55.)
For discussion of the principle of the quorum, see Note, § 137, infra.
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Voting in Senate.
23. Questions arising in the Senate shall be determined by a majority of votes, and each senator shall have one vote101. The President shall in all cases be entitled to a vote102; and when the votes are equal the question shall pass in the negative.
UNITED STATES.—Each senator shall have one vote.—Const, Art. I., sec. 3, sub-s. 1. [The President] shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.— Art. I., sec. 3, sub-s. 4. CANADA.—Questions arising in the Senate shall be decided by a majority of voices, and the Speaker shall in all cases have a vote, and when the voices are equal the decision shall be deemed to be in the negative.—B.N.A. Act, 1867, sec. 36.HISTORICAL NOTE.—In the Commonwealth Bill of 1891, the clause was substantially the same. In Committee, Sir Samuel Griffith explained that the provision that the President should have a vote was to secure the full representation of the State to which he belonged. (Conv. Deb., Syd. [1891], pp. 611–2.) At the Adelaide session, 1897, the clause was adopted in the same form. In Committee there was a short discussion of the provision for the President's vote. (Conv. Deb., Adel., pp. 682–3.) At the Melbourne session, before the first report, the words “and each senator shall have one vote” were transferred from clause 7.