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One member, one vote?


sMargaret

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Can't seem to find the correct section of Roberts Rules of Order about one member, one vote.

However, bylaws of a district organization state: "The voting membership of the District ___ council is delegates appointed or elected by individual __ Councils, with one vote per ___ Council."

If the delegate is elected or appointed by more than one individual council, would they not get more than one vote?

thanks for any assistance, and especially for citations!

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Can't seem to find the correct section of Roberts Rules of Order about one member, one vote.

However, bylaws of a district organization state: "The voting membership of the District ___ council is delegates appointed or elected by individual __ Councils, with one vote per ___ Council."

If the delegate is elected or appointed by more than one individual council, would they not get more than one vote?

thanks for any assistance, and especially for citations!

One Person, One Vote. See RONR (11th ed.), p. 407.

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Tim, ashamed as I am to admit it, I still only have access to RONR 10th edition (a personal failing, I know). I don't suppose you could quote me some of what's on page 407, could you, so that I could find it in my edition?

I will also point to the section of the bylaws that very explicitly say that there is one vote per council, not one vote per member - does the page 407 language overrule this?

thanks!

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Aha!

So RONR/10 says: "In any decision made, the opinion of each member present has equal weight as expressed by vote - through which the voting member joins in assuming direct personal responsibility for the decision, should his or her vote be on the prevailing side."

The bylaws seem to indicate that the members are councils, rather than the people. Maybe. Sort of. Difficult to tell. (rubs hands together) Perhaps some bylaw work is required!

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Tim, ashamed as I am to admit it, I still only have access to RONR 10th edition (a personal failing, I know). I don't suppose you could quote me some of what's on page 407, could you, so that I could find it in my edition?

I will also point to the section of the bylaws that very explicitly say that there is one vote per council, not one vote per member - does the page 407 language overrule this?

thanks!

"It is a fundamental principal of parliamentary law that each person who is a member of a deliberative assembly is entitled to one -- and only one -- vote on a question. This is true even if a person is elected to more than one position, each of which would entitle the holder to a vote." - RONR (11th ed.), p. 407, ll. 1-6.

This explicit language is not found in the Tenth Edition, though the principle is the same in both versions.

The bylaws supersede RONR, but it is for the organization to decide if the bylaws deviate from this principle in their language.

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