yeas and nays

Yeas and nays are the tallies of affirmative and negative votes on a proposal. " Yea " signifies agreement or approval, while “ nay ” indicates disagreement or a negative vote. They are often used to describe vote results in a legislature or other deliberative body. The "yeas and nays" are utilized to maintain a public record of how House or Senate members voted. Article 1, Section 5 of the U.S. Constitution states: “Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House on any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal .”

See U.S. v. Ballin , in which the opinion refers to the count of House votes as “the yeas and nays ordered.”

[Last reviewed in November of 2024 by the Wex Definitions Team ]

Wex

• CIVICS
• the Constitution
• THE LEGAL PROCESS
• legal practice/ethics
• wex definitions
• constitutional law
• legal education and practice