Cybermentarian

Thank you for responding, my question is more about challenging the count, as it is done "off camera" and we are just told the results, the idea being that since our bylaws, while not perfect, allow for mail in proxy ballots, we want to force the board to create a valid witness to the count as to remove any chance of fraud. Also, our organization's parliamentary procedure is appalling in so many ways the more I look into it. At no point does the board validate that a proxy ballot and an attending member are not both voting. The whole proxy vote system needs to be fixed, but I need to prove that there are double dealings and mishandling of proxies, before I can make motions to amend our bylaws to better patrol for these kinds of things.

Recently in my organization, we had a vote regarding a sweeping change to the bylaws, it was a very contentious debate prior to the vote. After the votes of the members in attendance was split nearly 50/50 with the motion passing by a small majority, they announced the proxy ballot results which were overwhelmingly for the amendment change. Me and a few members were suspicious of this tally. In parliamentary procedure how can we challenge these votes to force them to be recounted and witnessed by the attending body? Is a simple call for division enough? More information: We do not use a secret ballot system. Each proxy ballot is signed and dated by the member mailing it in. This amendment grants the board extremely overreaching control over the members and this board has had a lot of insider dealings going on. They are also the ones who tally and announce the votes of proxy ballots and this isn't the first time we have had suspicion of vote fraud as talking with members who mailed them in have given us contradictory information to the ballot system.