Source: State Bill Colorado
Colorado House Speaker Terrance Carroll is silhouetted by a large scoreboard that tallies legislator votes. Its sister chamber, the Senate, is getting new vote-tabulation software for 2010. But the Senate won’t go to the red-green buttons familiar to state representatives.

By Allie Winter
STATE BILL COLORADO
Don’t push the Colorado Senate’s buttons. Well, even if you want to, you can’t. It doesn’t have them.
When it comes to recording legislator votes, the 65-person Colorado House for years has employed a red=no and green=yes button-pushing voting system. Because the Senate is smaller, with 35 members, it’s tradition has always been to vote by voice or individual role call, Secretary of the Senate Karen Goldman told State Bill Colorado.
“No one sees any reason to change it,” Goldman said. “It’s never been our intention to put a push button voting system in to the Senate.”
While no buttons are in the works, the Senate next month is getting new voting system software that tabulates the votes — but only after the hands are counted. Denver-based LVW Electronics is doing the work. LVW’s bid included a software upgrade for both the House and Senate. Goldman says the new software will include a tool enabling Senate staffers to collect a voting record from each individual senator.
“We can capture that information from the (Senate) Journal now, but it’s more time consuming,” she said.
The software is being tested. Goldman said the goal is to have it up and running when the session starts in January.