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Vacancy or (Extended) Incomplete Election?


jstackpo

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An organization has a proper "or until..." clause in its bylaws in the specification of the terms of office.

 

The org, for whatever reason, fails to elect a (new) president at the regular election meeting.  The current president agrees to continue in office.

 

After a while (weeks, months?), the president gets tired of this and resigns.  When his resignation is accepted does this create...

 

1)  A vacancy in office into which the VP automatically moves?

 

or

 

2)  A requirement to try again to elect a president, as the non-occupancy (I don't want to use the word "vacancy" here) of the presidential office is essentially the result of an incomplete election?

 

 

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Not enough facts.

 

We need to know exactly what the bylaws say about elections, and why the organization failed to elect a president ("for whatever reason" isn't helpful). We also need to know what is meant by "The current president agrees to continue in office." If he agreed to do so, it appears as if the assembly must have asked him to do so.

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Here's some details (which I am making up, of course):

 

Bylaws are identical to those of the RONR Society, p. 583-588

 

"Failed" because there were no nominees for the presidency and no write-in votes for anybody.

 

The president "agreed" because he knew what the bylaws said, and went along with that mandate.  The association members also knew what the bylaws said (I know, I know, this is sheer fantasy) and anticipated the president's continuation in office.  He wasn't formally asked because there was no need to.

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Yes, sure.

My main question or point is that some time has passed since the election meeting and the same person is still serving as president -- no new person was elected.

When he decides to resign, what does he "leave behind", an incomplete election or a vacancy?

 

Based upon the additional facts provided, it seems that there was, and continues to be, an incomplete election which should be completed asap, regardless of whether or not the president wants to resign.

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If the society just let things slide by relying upon the "or until" clause, then they were failing in their duty to complete the election.  That doesn't mean the election is complete because they ignored it, but rather that, through fatigue or forgetfulness, they dropped the election ball.  That's not easy since they were presumably postponing the election for meeting after meeting, and it would continue to come up in due course at the following meeting.

 

This could probably have been avoided if the president had not merely agreed to hang around, but rather agreed to run for reelection in one of those many attempts to complete the election.  He presumably would have won by acclamation.  Then, if he resigned months later, there would be no question that a vacancy had occurred.

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