Buffalo

I want to thank everyone who contributed to this discussion. To the people that said I was just looking for an answer because I didn’t like what I was hearing, this is not true. This is a forum for discussion and I that’s all I was doing. I had many questions since this seemed to be a unique situation and I am somewhat new to Robert’s rules. But again, thank you to everyone who weighed in. It was greatly appreciated and very enlightening. This is truly a great forum with many smart people, so thank you.

Ok. So even though the reopening of the floor was done wrong, the fact that the election was held means there can be no recourse? Is it a “too bad, so sad” type of moment? How would Robert’s rules of order address this situation? I also want to thank everyone for their input. This is very educational.

I also saw in another place that as long as an election is challenged before the officers officially take there seat, then a challenge can happen. In this case, the officers don’t start until January 1st.

Thank you for weighing in. I found this though and it is why I am wondering if I can challenge. It was taken for parli.com In Alice Sturgis’ book on Parliamentary Procedure, she outlines a more detailed procedure for challenging an election. (p. 151)

I updated my original question, I apologize that I originally left out the part that the nominations were reopened.

Here is what Robert’s rules states: “Because members' rights are not infringed upon by reopening the nominations, this motion requires only a majority vote, and a voice vote is taken. To reopen the nominations, a member can make the motion when no one has the floor.” So I respectfully disagree with your response.

I am in a volunteer fire dept. and we use Robert’s rules of order. We had an election for line officers (chief, capt., etc.). A motion was made to reopen the nominations and a person was nominated from the floor right before the vote. However, when the motion was made, it was approved by a second but a majority vote was not taken to see if the motion would be accepted or not. Everyone forgot this rule, including myself and and the person was allowed to be nominated. This person who was nominated (technically illegally) ended up pulling enough votes that one person lost a capt. position by 2 votes. There were 3 spots available and now 5 people running. Then when the vote for lieutenant happened, this same person was again nominated illegally from the floor in the same process as he was for capt. The problem is that if he had not been nominated illegally, there were only 3 people left for the 3 lieutenant positions so 1 vote would have been cast for the 3 people and they would have assumed the lieutenant positions. However, since this other person was nominated, they ended up winning one of the spots instead after a vote. Here are my questions: 1. Since the motion was made to nominate from the floor but not voted on and approved by a majority, does this make it an illegal nomination? I have seen a lot of supporting material that says it is illegal. 2. In this case, assuming it was an illegal nomination, would this person be voided from running? 3. If said person is now voided from nominations, and the elections for capt and lieutenant are also now voided, how would we proceed? 4. Would we go back to the original nominations since he was an illegal nomination? Would we have to void these 2 elections and then start all over including allowing a vote to be able run from the floor? 5. If a quorum is not present for the special meeting to address the new elections, what would happen or what process would be followed?