Empty Ballot

[Guest L.J.]

What happens when nominees for an office withdraws, leaving the slate for that office blank?  Our bylaws prescribe a time for taking nominations from the floor, which has already passed.

[Chris Harrison]

If there indeed are no nominees for the office then the members write down the name of whoever they want and if someone gets a majority vote then he or she is elected and if that person declines the office then you will need to have further rounds of voting.  If your bylaws specifically prohibit write-in votes then you have a real problem.

Edit: Also, I was thinking the members could Suspend the Rules and reopen nominations from the floor.  However, depending on how the bylaws are written doing so could violate the rights of any absent members.

Edited October 21, 2017 at 03:22 AM by Chris Harrison

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

Voters are still entitled to write in a name on the ballot.

[J. J.]

30 minutes ago, Chris Harrison said:

If there indeed are no nominees for the office then the members write down the name of whoever they want and if someone gets a majority vote then he or she is elected and if that person declines the office then you will need to have further rounds of voting.  If your bylaws specifically prohibit write-in votes then you have a real problem.

Edit: Also, I was thinking the members could Suspend the Rules and reopen nominations from the floor.  However, depending on how the bylaws are written doing so could violate the rights of any absent members.

Even in this case, I think nominations could be reopened by a majority vote.  If the bylaws, "Nominations from the floor shall be made at the October meeting," that would not preclude reopening nominations at the November meeting by a majority.  If after the bylaws said, after that, "There shall be no additional nominations after the October meeting," then you would be talking about suspending the rules.

[Richard Brown]

I agree that, based on what have been told, nominations can be reopened by a majority vote. I also agree that write-in votes would be permissible unless prohibited by the bylaws. However, I believe that such a rule in the bylaws is in the nature of a rule of order and could be suspended by a two thirds vote.