Sec.13.  When the final vote is to be taken, the speaker puts the question:  “Shall the bill pass?” If a majority of the members present vote in the affirmative, (the speaker also voting,) the bill is passed; if a majority vote in the negative, the bill is lost.  Also if the ayes and noes are equal, it is lost, because there is not a majority in its favor.  In a senate where a lieutenant-governor presides, not being properly a member, he does not vote, except when the ayes and noes are equal; in which case there is said to be a tie; and he determines the question by his vote, which is called the casting vote.  In some states, on the final passage of a bill, a bare majority of the members present is not sufficient to pass it, in case any members are absent.  The constitutions of those states require the votes of a majority of all the members elected to each house.

Sec.14.  When a bill has passed one house it is sent to the other, where it must pass through the same forms of action; that is, it must be referred to a committee; reported by the committee to the house; and be read three times before a vote is taken on its passage.  This vote having been taken, the bill is returned to the house from which it was received.  If it has been amended, the amendments must be agreed to by the first house, or the second must recede from their amendments, or the amendments must be so modified as to secure the approval of both houses, before the bill can become a law.

Sec.15.  Some young reader may inquire why a bill should take so long and slow a course through two different houses; and why one body of representatives is not sufficient.  The object is to secure the enactment of good laws.  Notwithstanding bills go through the hands of a committee and three different readings in the house; yet through undue haste, wrong information, or from other causes, a house may, and often does, commit serious errors.  Legislatures are therefore divided into two branches; and a bill having passed one house is sent to the other where the mistakes of the former may be corrected, or the bill wholly rejected.

Sec.16.  But in many of the states, a bill, when passed by both houses, is not yet a law.  As the two houses may concur in adopting an unwise measure, an additional safeguard is provided against the enactment of bad laws, by requiring all bills to be sent to the governor for examination and approval.  If he approves a bill, he signs it, and it is a law; if he does not sign it, it is not a law.  In refusing to sign a bill, he is said to negative, or veto the bill. Veto, Latin, means, I forbid.