Voting in New Board of directors

[Guest Marcy]

It is time for our club to hold elections. There are “2” Board of Director positions open with no one rerunning.. The nominating committee has nominated 2 people. We will call them “A” & “B”. 2 other people are running from the floor. We will call them “C” &”D”. I thought ALL 4 people are put on the ballot and members are to pick “2” for the “2” open positions right ?

First I will write what I understand how they are doing it, but below is what they wrote me back.. below.

They are doing it alphabetical..

Nominating committee nominated A & B …. “A” comes before “B” so “A” is listed first

A – C = vote for “1”

B – D = vote for “1”

Running from the floor .. “C” & “D”

And if I believe A & C are the best “2” people to fill the 2 open positions, I can’t because they are putting

A against C !!

Also, if you have two positions open, you don't throw everyone's hat in and have 4 people run for 2 positions. That's the equivelent of all 4 running for 2 positions. A canidate can only run for 1 position.

So, the nominations weren't specific as to which BOD position, so they were chosen in alphabetical order (A comes before B, and C comes before D). Therefore:

A vs. B

C vs. D

I was told that there is somewhere in Robert’s Rule where this states it should be the two who get the most votes ?? HELP !!!

[Tim Wynn]

Each voter may vote for any one or two eligible candidates, a, b, c, d, or any of the rest of the alphabet.

See RONR (11th ed.), p. 441, ll. 11-24, which says, in part, "In such a case, if more than the prescribed number receive a majority vote, that places are filled by the proper number receiving the largest number of votes. If less than the proper number receive a majority vote, those who do have a majority are elected, and all others remain as candidates for the necessary repeated balloting."

[Guest Marcy]

Thank you ~

They are saying that there are 2 open positions on the BOD. the nominating committee nominated 2 people to fill them. A & B. there are 2 people running from the floor. So A is running against a person from the floor and B is running against the other person from the floor. Shouldn’t ALL 4 run for the 2 positions instead of 1 running against the other?

[Guest Edgar]

Shouldn’t ALL 4 run for the 2 positions instead of 1 running against the other?

Yes. And not only the four who were nominated but anyone else whose name a voter chooses to "write in" on the ballot.

[Gary Novosielski]

Also, if you have two positions open, you don't throw everyone's hat in and have 4 people run for 2 positions. That's the equivelent of all 4 running for 2 positions. A canidate can only run for 1 position.

So, the nominations weren't specific as to which BOD position, so they were chosen in alphabetical order (A comes before B, and C comes before D). Therefore:

A vs. B

C vs. D

That's crazy.

If there are two identical positions open, and there are four candidates for those two positions, members should be able to vote for any two candidates out of the four (or out of the universe of eligible candidates that they choose to write in) to fill the two positions. The two highest vote getters (presuming they get a majority of the ballots cast) are elected.

Splitting them artificially into two offices is nonsense, and doing so by the alphabet is utter nonsense.