Did Someone Rig Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi’s Vote?

The Chron‘s John Diaz had a great story out on Sunday about “ghost voting,” the practice of assemblymembers voting for their colleagues while they’re out of the room. According to Diaz, East Bay Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi had always planned to vote against a badly written affordable housing bill when it came to the floor. But on May 28, while she was away from her desk, the bill came up for a vote, and Assemblyman Kevin de Leon walked up to her station and allegedly voted “yes” on her behalf. Loni Hancock noticed the vote and raced over to Hayashi’s desk to correct it. For 22 seconds, Hayashi’s vote bounced from yes to no and back again, until it finally went blank and registered nothing. Hancock claims she didn’t know who cast the first vote against Hayashi’s wishes, but she’s probably observing some sort of obscure parliamentary etiquette against ratting out your colleagues. But other eyewitnesses identified de Leon, who doesn’t deny it.