Reference to a By Law being suspended

[Guest Scott]

Our organization recently voted to suspend a rule requiring a ballot vote. I have read in RONR 11th edition that a by law requiring a ballot vote cannot be suspended. Should our organization rescind this due to the motion being out of order and re vote on the members?

[Chris Harrison]

No but a member should raise a Point of Order without regard to its normal timeliness requirement citing RONR p. 251 (e).

[Guest Scott]

15 minutes ago, Guest Scott said:

Our organization recently voted to suspend a rule requiring a ballot vote. I have read in RONR 11th edition that a by law requiring a ballot vote cannot be suspended. Should our organization rescind this due to the motion being out of order and re vote on the members?

 

[Richard Brown]

Agreeing with Mr. Harrison, the proper recourse is for a member, at meeting, to raise a point of order that the election violated the bylaws and is therefore invalid . Void.

You are correct that s bylaw requirement of a ballot vote cannot be waived or suspended. 

[Guest Scott 1]

Thanks.

 

[Alexis Hunt]

The reason for this is that the point of a ballot vote is to allow people to express their true opinion without having to worry about the optics. If a vote is contentious in a way that makes this likely to be a problem, then someone objecting to waiving the ballot could be tantamount to taking an opinion on the issue. Thus, the ballot rule is worthless if it can be set aside.