voting by e-mail

[Guest John Schrunk]

We are a lake/home owners association, small about 52 home owners-why wouldn't e-mail voting be a viable method?

[George Mervosh]

"Efforts to conduct the deliberative process by postal or electronic mail or facsimile (fax) transmission-which are not recommended-must be expressly authorized by the bylaws and should be supported by special rules of order and standing rules as appropriate, since so many situations unprecedented in parliamentary law may arise and since many procedures common to parliamentary law are not applicable (see pp. 482-83)." RONR, page 2 (footnote)

As a practical matter, the bolded part is never done correctly.

[Josh Martin]

We are a lake/home owners association, small about 52 home owners-why wouldn't e-mail voting be a viable method?

Do you just want to vote on particular motions by e-mail, or do you want to conduct the entire deliberative process (motions, debate, vote) by e-mail? The former sounds viable, but I would not recommend the latter for an assembly of that size. Either way, any form of absentee voting must be authorized in your Bylaws and should be supported by special rules of order and standing rules to determine how the process works. If your organization is interested in developing such a procedure, take a look at these articles.

[jstackpo]

... take a look at these articles.

And pay particular attention to the part of one of the big ones that describes the [problem(s) with e-mail voting.