In this vote, the House defeated a procedural motion to recommit to committee with instructions (send back to committee with instructions to take a specific action; often a last attempt by the opponents of a bill to kill or amend substantively the pending legislation) H.R. 841, a bill to require, in extraordinary circumstances, states to hold special elections to fill vacancies in the House of Representatives no more than 49 days after the vacancy is announced by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The motion, made by John Conyers (D-MI), would have required that in the event of such an election, each state provide a minimum required number of functioning and accurate voting machines and poll workers for each precinct on the day of any special election. On behalf of Democrats, including Progressives, Conyers harkened back to the uncertainty regarding some voting procedures in Ohio following the 2004 presidential election, and stated that this amendment would help to avoid such problems in a special election. Republicans did not offer specific arguments against this amendment, but instead countered only by discussing the importance of the bill itself and ensuring that it became law to guarantee that the U.S. government could still function in the event of a devastating terrorist attack or other disaster. The motion to recommit with instructions was defeated on a straight party-line vote of 196 to 223; thus, no additional protections to ensure fair voting procedures were added to the legislation.