proxy voting - The practice of allowing a Senator to cast a vote in committee for an absent Senator. Senate Rule XXVI provides that proxies may not be voted when the absent Senator has not been informed of the matter on which he is being recorded and has not requested that he be so recorded.
Source: http://www.senate.gov/reference/glossary_term/proxy_voting.htm
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Thomas was confirmed by a vote of 52-48, with Biden again voting nay.
Filibuster is when a senator(s) speak about anything they want so that a bill cannot get pased. This can make it so that they cannot pass the bill because the senator has the floor and they can't vote on it, or people begin to get annoyed and vote 'no' just to get it over with. Cloture is when 3/5 of the senate votes to limit each senator to only 1 hour of debate whoch thus kills a filibuster and allows everyone to get a say and to be able to vote.
A senator holds town hall meetings to find out how citizens think she should vote on gun control legislation
The vote was 60-39-1, strictly along party lines (ie 60 Democrats, 39 Republicans). The "1" was Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) who was absent for family reasons and did not vote.
United States Senators have always been elected by popular vote. Each state votes for their own Senator. Each state has two Senators.