They can’t meet at the Capitol, but technology is keeping state senators together | Nebraska Legislature


They can't meet at the Capitol, but technology is keeping state senators together | Nebraska Legislature

In answer to Fulton’s questions, Scheer said as long as senators don’t have a quorum in their virtual meetings, which would be 25 senators, there’s no infraction.

And he doesn’t know that any committees are getting together, which can be seven to nine senators, because all the committee work is basically done.


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The interpretation of legislative rules he is using is that senators must be in the chamber at the Capitol to be able to vote. And he is reluctant to change the rules, because Zoom has proven to be somewhat unreliable with hackers being able to inject themselves into meetings.

Technically, could a hacker of a legislative Zoom meeting change the outcome of a vote? he asked. Good question.

For his part, he’s just learning about Zoom, and doesn’t tweet or use Facebook. But he does know about phone conference calls. And Zoom adds visual to the audio, he said.

Just like real world, he said, he can tell a lot more from a conversation if he’s looking at a person versus just listening, to know if the person is understanding what he is saying or whether he needs to back up and say something in a different way.

The COVID-19 briefing with University of Nebraska Medical Center doctors was not much different than if senators had been gathered at a social event, he said.


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