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Effect on quorum of recusing or abstaining.


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If a quorum (say majority of members)is present at a meeting, but enough members declare a conflict of interest to bring the number voting below the level of a quorum, does this affect the vote? What if enough members abstain from voting to bring the number voting below the level of a quorum? Is declaring a conflict of interest the same as recusing oneself from the vote? If not, if enough members recuse themselves to bring the number remaining below the number required for a quorum, is the vote affected?

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It's wise to disabuse yourself of the notion that the number of voting members who must be present (a quorum) and the number of members who actually vote on a question are related.

To use an extreme and impractical example: If there are 100 members in a room and that's enough for a quorum, 1-0 with 99 abstentions will adopt a motion requiring a majority vote or a 2/3 vote.

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Additionally, it might bear mentioning that recusing yourself from voting due to some perceived conflict of interest doesn't necessarily remove your right to vote, which (although I can't cite chapter and verse at the moment) is a right that can only be curtailed through disciplinary procedures. So you're still a voting member, and thus count towards the quorum calculation.

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If a quorum (say majority of members)is present at a meeting, but enough members declare a conflict of interest to bring the number voting below the level of a quorum, does this affect the vote? What if enough members abstain from voting to bring the number voting below the level of a quorum? Is declaring a conflict of interest the same as recusing oneself from the vote? If not, if enough members recuse themselves to bring the number remaining below the number required for a quorum, is the vote affected?

As long as they remain in the room they count toward quorum.

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  • 3 months later...
Guest Leondra Rybensky

Additionally, it might bear mentioning that recusing yourself from voting due to some perceived conflict of interest doesn't necessarily remove your right to vote, which (although I can't cite chapter and verse at the moment) is a right that can only be curtailed through disciplinary procedures. So you're still a voting member, and thus count towards the quorum calculation.

If you have recuse yourself from voting on a particular item, can you rescind the recusal and vote?

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If you have recuse yourself from voting on a particular item, can you rescind the recusal and vote?

Even easier. You can just vote.

There is no "recusal" event in RONR, which does not deal with the subject except to say that people should not vote on a question in which they have a personal or pecuniary interest not shared by other members.

Outside of an actual judicial context, what people call "recusal" just amounts to an announcement that one does not intend to take part in considering a particular question, presumably on account of some real or perceived conflict of interest. Nothing happens officially as a result of the announcement. I suppose if you change your mind, you can simply announce that fact, but that's no more official than the original announcement.

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If you have recuse yourself from voting on a particular item, can you rescind the recusal and vote?

There is nothing to "rescind."

(To rescind something, that certain something must have been adopted. Merely uttering words does not "create a rescindable object".)

A person who says aloud, "... therefore I must recuse myself ...", is under no obligation to abstain from voting.

It isn't a commitment.

It isn't a binding oath.

He (the recuser) is free to undo his recusal silently, to himself. -- And grab a ballot and start voting.

He need not obtain permission to vote, just because he told someone, somewhere, sometime, that he plans to recuse himself.

As always, if you have a customized rule saying otherwise, then obey your customized rule.

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  • 7 years later...

Guest Happy, please post your question by starting a new topic. The instructions are in the first pinned Post in the general forum.

Edited to add: here is a link to the pinned post with instructions for posting that I was referring to:  

 

Edited by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph
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