two Chairs one vote?

[Guest CWhite]

Currently, our committee has two co-chairs and each has voting rights. It has been proposed that if there are two chairs then they should only have one vote. The rationale is that that one vote can be used to break a tie. Is this approach valid? If both are at a meeting with a tied motion, how do you decide who gets to vote? 

[Hieu H. Huynh]

RONR does not recommend having co-chairs. If your rules allow for them, it will be up to your organization to decide these issues.

[Gary Novosielski]

1 hour ago, Guest CWhite said:

Currently, our committee has two co-chairs and each has voting rights. It has been proposed that if there are two chairs then they should only have one vote. The rationale is that that one vote can be used to break a tie. Is this approach valid? If both are at a meeting with a tied motion, how do you decide who gets to vote? 

The presiding officer's vote has more to it than "breaking" ties.  The presiding officer may vote freely or abstain whenever his one vote would make a difference: to create or break a tie, to achieve or deny a 2/3 vote if that were the threshold.  For a ballot vote, the presiding officer votes with everyone else.

Unless your bylaws expressly create co-chair offices, you do not actually have co-chairs.  Even if you do, you'll need to have a way to decide which chair presides at a given meeting.   A meeting cannot have two chairs. It's patent nonsense, and completely unworkable.  The presiding chair at that meeting would follow the rules for the presiding officer, and the "other" chair would simply be a member.  

Regardless, the rules in RONR provide for a strict one-person-one-vote rule for all except stock corporations, where votes depend on shares owned.

You should figure out which of your chairs is the chair, and which is the vice-chair.   

By the way, how large is this committee?  If it's not more than about a dozen, just use small-board rules and the voting problem goes away.

[Richard Brown]

It might help to keep in mind that when it comes to voting, you count heads, not hats. 

[Greg Goodwiller, PRP]

I would add two comments to this conversation

First, "it is a fundamental principle of parliamentary law that each person who is a member of a deliberative assembly is entitled to one - and only one - vote on a question" (RONR Pg. 407, ll. 1-4). That said, the question posed is about a committee, which by definition is not a form of deliberative assembly.

Second, according to Robert's Rules, in small boards and in committees (regardless of the size), "If the chairman is a member, he may, without leaving the chair, speak in informal discussions and in debate, and vote on all questions" (RONR pg. 488, ll. 18-20).