Both Senate and House rules provide for a motion to reconsider, or revisit, each vote taken by their chamber. Most legislative assemblies allow for a second look at their voting decisions. A motion to reconsider a vote allows the House or Senate to either affirm or change their mind about the vote just held. If you are a Member satisfied with the way the vote came out, you would want to prevent it from being re-opened. That is why you see the motion to reconsider almost immediately tabled – or killed – as soon as it is offered. Tabling the attempt to reconsider the vote has the effect of locking the outcome in place.

In daily House practice, the Chair quickly disposes of the motion to reconsider and the motion to table in one breath, after each vote is announced. Listen carefully: you will hear him/her say, ". . . and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table." In the Senate, the same thing is accomplished by two Senators, both of whom want to protect and lock in the vote just held, rising together. In an orchestrated move, one moves to reconsider and the other quickly moves to table.

The motion to reconsider may be offered only once on each vote -- on the remainder of the day on which the initial vote was held or through the following two days the Senate is in session – a total of 3 days. In the House, the motion is viable for only the day the initial vote took place and on the next day of session – a total of 2 days. If a motion to reconsider a specific vote were to be adopted [it takes a simple majority vote], the House or Senate would hold that vote all over again. However, the debate and amending process are not repeated, only the vote.

The motion to reconsider can only be offered by a Member who voted on the prevailing side of the outcome – if the matter had won, he/she would have had to have voted aye, for example. Members who did not vote would also be eligible to offer the motion.

In the Senate, when a vote is very very close, you will see a party leader sometimes change his vote at the last minute from his true policy position to the opposing side. He does so to make himself eligible to offer the motion to reconsider, and thereby try to change the outcome. It is usually only the party leaders who do this because they can better explain a procedural motivation for changing their vote than can the average Member whose constituencies may not be as understanding of voting inconsistencies.

The main reason the motion is offered in the House is not so much due to close votes, but more likely as part of a dilatory strategy -- simply to use up time by forcing additional roll calls – one on the motion to reconsider and then another one on the motion to table.