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RALEIGH — Rep. Harold Brubaker's desk is in the front row of the House chamber. For nearly a quarter of the 1,400 votes the House took this year, no one was sitting there.

Still, the Asheboro Republican wasn't the most truant member of the General Assembly during 2007. That distinction belongs to Rep. Alice Bordsen, a Mebane Democrat who missed nearly 30 percent of all votes cast on the House floor.

With the exception of the House speaker — who typically does not vote except to break ties — and members who died or resigned, Brubaker and Bordsen were two of the bottom three legislators in terms of votes cast.

No other legislator — senator or House member — from Alamance, Caswell, Davidson, Guilford, Randolph or Rockingham counties came close to missing a similar percentage of votes. In fact, Winston-Salem Democrat Earline Parmon was the only other member from the Piedmont Triad to cast fewer than 90 percent of votes held during session.

Brubaker did not return messages left at his legislative and business offices Friday.

Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam, the Republican leader in the House, said he believed many of Brubaker's absences were to attend events for the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization made up of conservative legislators from across the county.

"That's completely legitimate," Stam said.

Each member of the House represents about 73,000 residents. They are paid $13,951 a year plus a $104 per diem.

Although some votes the two legislators missed were procedural, ceremonial or bills that affected only a few counties, others were substantial pieces of legislation.

Brubaker missed votes on funding embryonic stem cell research, giving school districts the ability to start their school years earlier, selecting presidential electors by district and expunging the records of youth felons — all hotly debated topics.

Bordsen missed many of the same votes and was absent when the $20.6 billion state budget was passed.

She did not return phone calls left at her home and legislative offices Friday.

The bulk of Bordsen's missed votes came during the last few days of the legislative session, and Rep. Hugh Holliman, the Democratic leader in the House, said that she was traveling overseas on vacation.

"She had planned that some time in advance," Holliman said.

Although he said it would be preferable for members to be available to vote, Bordsen had finished her committee work and "we felt OK with it."

The House clerk's office can record a member's vote in one of five ways:

l Aye: The member votes affirmative on a measure.

lNo: The member votes against a measure.

lExcused vote: The member is present but has a conflict of interest so he or she doesn't vote.

lExcused absence: The member is not present but has notified leaders ahead of time.

lN/V: The member fails to vote, either because he is absent from the chamber when it was recorded or was not there that day.

Brubaker was recorded as "N/V" on 26 votes. He obtained an "Excused Absence" 310 times, far more than the 25 to 50 votes that a typical member will miss because of an excused absence during the session.

Bordsen also obtained excused absences for 411 of the 414 votes she missed.

Outside observers and legislators say there are few rules governing what can justify an excused absence.

It can be anything from a death in the family to a vacation overseas.

"There's never one turned down," said Rep. John Blust, a Greensboro Republican with one of the best attendance records in the General Assembly. "You could say I'm going on vacation to the Riviera, and that would be excused."

Blust declined to speak about his fellow members but said of voting on the floor, "It's important. I guess if you were listing the order of magnitude of what you're elected to do, the very first thing would be show up and vote."

Voting on the floor of the House or Senate is not a legislator's only duty. There are myriad committee meetings, constituent service work and behind-the-scenes work of drafting and promoting legislation.

But voting on the floor is the most basic duty assigned to legislators, and aside from taking the oath of office is the one responsibility spelled out in the state constitution.

As measured by the non-partisan N.C. Center for Public Policy Research, 103 of 120 House members and 44 of 50 senators attended 90 percent or more days of session during the 2005-06 legislature.

"That's a strong attendance record for part-time legislators who have full-time jobs and many (of whom) have to drive a great distance every week," said Ran Coble, the center's director.

The center has not counted excused absences as marks against legislators in its prior analysis of data, Coble said, but he called the high number of excused absences by Brubaker and Bordsen "outside the norm."

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mbinker@news-record.com