Minutes for counted vote on adopted secondary motion

[paulmcclintock]

Ordinarily, an adopted amendment isn't listed in the minutes separately unless needed "for completeness or clarity" (p. 470, ll. 2-3) or was adhering to a main motion temporarily disposed of (p. 469, l. 22ff); instead, the main motion as adopted with the amendment is what is put into the minutes (page 469, line 17). 

 

But what if the secondary motion was counted (p. 470, l. 29 ff)?  Does the fact of the count then require the amendment to be listed in the minutes separately (along with the count), or does this put-counts-in-the-minutes rule only apply to the motions in preceding main minutes rules 1-11?

 

And if a convention uses electronic keypad voting which shows the counts and the chair announces the counts, does the "when the count has been ordered" (p. 470, l. 29) wording apply?

 

[J. J.]

I would say yes, it would be included.

[Dan Honemann]

As best I can determine, there is no clear-cut answer in RONR to the general question asked (and certainly none resulting from the "discussion" in Counted votes on secondary motions in the minutes ).

 

I am reasonably sure, however, that the "when the count has been ordered" phrase on page 470, line 29, is not intended to apply to a situation in which electronic keypad voting, showing the count on every vote, is routinely used for all voting, or to a situation in which, in a small assembly, votes are routinely taken by a show of hands and counted. It is tempting to assume that this phrase is intended to refer only to those situations in which the assembly itself orders that the vote be counted, but there may well be occasions in which the chair orders a count on his own initiative, and entering the count in the minutes would be worthwhile.

 

In each of these situations, the secretary should use a little common sense in drafting the minutes, and the final decision will be in the hands of the assembly when the minutes are presented to it for approval.