GOP Rep. Lance Gooden
Lance GoodenSole GOP vote on home police reform bill says he ‘accidentally pressed the wrong vote button’. House approves George Floyd Justice in police law. The Republicans of the House ask for information session on threats facing the national guard in DC more (Texas), the only Republican to vote for the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act,” reportedly said in a now-removed Twitter post that he accidentally pressed the wrong button.
“I accidentally pressed the wrong voice button and realized it too late,” Gooden wrote in the tweet, according to the Washington Post. “I changed the official record to reflect my opposition to the biased George Floyd Police Act.”
The measure would ban strangleholds, seek to end religious and racial profiling and eliminate certain warrants without a hitch among other police policy changes.
“I have probably the most conservative / American first voting record in Congress!” Gooden said in another tweet.
“Of course I will not support the radical left-wing law against the police,” he added. “I changed the official record to reflect my opposition!”
I probably have the most conservative / American first voting record in Congress!
Of course, I will not support the radical left, the Anti-Police Act.
I changed the official record to reflect my opposition! pic.twitter.com/s7uCdlxvgO
– Lance Gooden (@Lancegooden) March 4, 2021
The legislation passed the House late Wednesday with a vote of 220-112.
The Post notes that casual votes are not uncommon in legislators at both the state and federal levels, although the consequences have been of greater influence.
The Democratic North Carolina Rep. Becky Carney, for example, accidentally helped legalize fracturing in her state after she was beaten according to the newspaper, according to a veto against the bill she was working against. Because changing her voice would change the outcome, Carney was not allowed to reverse her vote under the rules of the room.