WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Rep. John Conyers' voting record improved in the last half of 2003, but he still finished the year with the third-worst voting record in Congress.

The Detroit Democrat missed one out of every five votes in 2003, or 138 of 677 possible votes, according to records compiled by the nonpartisan Congressional Observer Publications.

That put him behind Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., who missed 91 percent of all votes during his run for president, and former GOP Rep. Ernie Fletcher, who missed 30 percent as he ran successfully for governor of Kentucky.

Conyers missed only 16 out of 217 votes, or 7.3 percent, from September through December. But from January through July, he missed more than a quarter of all votes. He was most often absent in June, when he missed 50 of the 106 votes cast.

Conyers said after The Associated Press wrote about his record in August, staff members began calling his attention to less important votes that he might have skipped before, such as a vote to approve the minutes from the previous day's session.

"I doubt if anyone in Congress has ever read those (minutes), but it's a recorded vote, and when they say you missed a vote, people don't know what that vote is," Conyers said. "It's an unnecessary kind of a comment upon all the work that I'm doing."

Conyers said he welcomed scrutiny of his record.

"We're trying to get people more engaged in electoral politics and understanding how the governing process works," he said. "The more yardsticks and measurements, the better."

Howard Hughey, a spokesman for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, said he was surprised to learn about Conyers' voting record. But he said Conyers' reputation would be difficult to tarnish in Detroit.

"You'd like to think that he votes every single time, but no one can take away what he's done on Capitol Hill," Hughey said. "He's done miracles in some instances."

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, missed 67 votes, the second-highest number in Michigan's congressional delegation. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, was the only member of Michigan's House delegation who missed no votes in 2003.

"The only constitutional description of our job as a member of Congress is to vote, so I take that very seriously," Kildee said. "That is the constitutional obligation I have."

Kildee said he has missed only 21 out of the 15,311 votes that have been cast since he arrived in 1977. Kildee jokes that when he was 17, he was the only student to show up for school during a blizzard. His father was the only one who made it to work at his Buick plant.

"It's part of my system," Kildee said.

Democratic Sen. Carl Levin also had a perfect record in 2003, missing none of the Senate's 459 votes. Fellow Democrat Debbie Stabenow missed one vote. Both senators have voted on all four measures considered so far this year.

Conyers has voted on all five measures that have passed the House so far in 2004. Reps. Stupak and Dave Camp, R-Midland, have already missed one: The vote to open the 2004 session.

___

On the Net:

U.S. Congress, http://thomas.loc.gov