Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

When Rep. Dawnna Dukes left for a family trip to France last Thursday, she entrusted her vote on a major piece of tax legislation to one of the highest-ranking Republicans in the Texas House.

But things didn't quite work out as she had planned. And with the Austin Democrat out of the country and unable to vote, the GOP-backed proposal passed by a single vote.

Dukes, knowing that she was likely to miss the vote on a proposal to cut billions of dollars in school property taxes while raising billions with broader sales taxes, made an agreement with Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, that Pitts would register "present not voting" on the tax bill. Since Dukes would have voted "no" and Pitts would have voted "yes" if both had been present, a decision by Pitts not to vote would have had the same net effect — the two members would have canceled each other out.

"She understood that would kind of make her vote count, and it made her feel she could leave town," said Pamela McPeters, chief of staff to Dukes, who was returning from France on Thursday and unavailable for comment.

But Pitts decided early this week that he needed to vote for the bill after all, and he did just that when it came up for preliminary approval Wednesday night and a final vote Thursday. With Pitts voting yes and Dukes out of the country, the measure passed on a one-vote margin. It won final approval on Thursday and is headed to the Senate.

In 1997, Dukes also missed a key House vote on a tax bill because she was attending a seminar in New York unrelated to her legislative duties.

The Pitts-Dukes incident was one of several during the House's two-day tax debate that illustrated the ways lawmakers try to finesse the legislative process to minimize the damage when they don't show up.

Pitts heads the House Appropriations Committee, on which Dukes sits, and the two worked closely on a state budget this year. He said Thursday he made the arrangement with Dukes last week but changed his mind after he went home over the weekend.

"I went home and talked to constituents, and they said how important it was, property taxes, and that I needed to be shown for property tax reduction," Pitts said.

He said one of his aides called Dukes' office on Tuesday and said he would have to vote for the tax proposal.

He also said he called a couple of other Democratic House members to see if there was anything they could do to help Dukes, but to no avail.

"I felt bad about this," Pitts said. "But this is something that I understand is done all the time, that people change their minds, that the other person that's out of town changes their mind." He said he was not pressured by anyone else to vote for the plan, and House Speaker Tom Craddick's office said it played no role in Pitts' decision.

Dukes' staff, however, offered a slightly different account.

McPeters said a Pitts aide told her that Pitts changed his mind after talking to Nancy Fisher, the chief of staff to Craddick. The aide said Fisher told Pitts that Craddick "needed all the votes he could get" on the tax bill, McPeters said.

For several decades, House rules have allowed lawmakers to pair their votes to neutralize absences, although House Parliamentarian Denise Davis said either side can break the agreement at any time.

When the House took a final vote on the tax plan Thursday, four members who were not there paired with four who were. Dukes was paired with Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless, who registered as "present not voting."

"The pairing rule is among individual members, and it's been there forever," Craddick said.

Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, said Pitts should not have been allowed to change his mind.

"It takes two people to make an agreement, and it should take two to break it," she said."The House has rules that allow this pairing. I think (Pitts) should have voted a white light (for present-not voting)."

Dukes wasn't the only Democrat missing from Wednesday's preliminary vote.

Reps. Trey Martinez-Fischer of San Antonio and Craig Eiland of Galveston also were not there, but when the vote was first taken, both were shown as voting "no." That allowed opponents of the tax proposal to think momentarily that they had killed it.

Dukes and one other absent lawmaker were not shown as voting because they had received excused absences earlier in the day.

House records show that a colleague filed a request on Dukes' behalf that she be officially excused for "important business" while in France.

When lawmakers called for a verification of who was on the floor and who was not, it became apparent that Martinez-Fischer and Eiland were not there.

The new count gave Republican House leaders a one-vote win.

Eiland, who returned for Thursday's final vote, was at an out-of-state conference for a legislative group that he heads. Martinez-Fischer's chief of staff would not say Thursday where he was for either of the tax votes.

Leading Democrats in the House did not blame the absent lawmakers for their defeat, saying Craddick would have convinced some of the Republicans who voted against him to switch sides if needed.

Lawmakers regularly vote for colleagues who are not on the House floor or standing away from their desks. Suzy Woodford of Common Cause Texas said this act, known as "ghost voting," should not be allowed because it gives the public the impression that a lawmaker who missed a vote was there for it.

"We want the voters to be able to rely on the record," she said.

Questions about voting practices were also raised Thursday when two Republican lawmakers, Rep. Glen Hegar of Katy and Rep. Vicki Truitt of Keller, missed the final vote on the tax proposal.

Both had voted against the measure Wednesday, and if they had done so again Thursday the measure could have been defeated.

Hegar and Truitt denied that Craddick or any other Republican leader told them to miss the vote.

Hegar said he had to return home to tend to some personal events he had planned with his wife and children, thinking that the House would take the final vote right after the preliminary vote late Wednesday. It is not unusual for the House to do so.

Truitt said she was giving a speech in San Antonio during Thursday's vote.

"I had already expressed my sentiment about the bill," she said.