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Election by the membership


Lowell

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Our organization will be implementing new bylaws in connection with electing three members to our Board of Directors. The Nominating Committee (of which I am a member) has established a slate of ten candidates with input from various sources; the bylaws do not permit nominations from the floor at the election meeting.

(Prior bylaws permitted nominations from the floor at the meeting, with the elected persons having attained the greatest number of votes - most likely on the first ballot.)

Our bylaws now state the elected candidates must have a majority vote with continued runoffs of those who did not receive a majority of the votes cast.

After a likely multitude of runoffs, with about 100 people voting, might those present move to suspend the rules to either state that on the next ballot the persons with the greatest number of votes are those elected, or suspend the rules to reduce the number of candidates on the ballot by eliminating the person with the fewest votes? RONR seems to discourage both of these avenues, but how does one break the stalemate? In the latter (elimination) case, the person receiving the least votes will be identified to the members and might not be pleased with the announcement of having come in last!

Does anyone have any other solutions to keep the voting from going on forever and still complete the election? Thanks in advance!

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As to your first question, I don't believe a bylaw requiring a majority vote can be suspended to allow plurality voting, which is what electing just by the highest number of votes entails. (I could be wrong on this, and I will defer to the more experienced members.)

My questions to you are: 1) why did your nominating committee select 10 candidates for 3 positions? RONR describes the role of the nominating committee as typically selecting the best candidate for each position (RONR, 11th ed., p.433). If you reduced the number of candidates, I think you (collectively) would have a much easier job of electing the 3 board members;

and 2) You said your bylaws have now eliminated the ability to receive nominations from the floor at the election meeting. But do your members get to make additional nominations at any other time? The recommended procedure from RONR would be that, after the nominating committee presents its report, naming its choice for the best candidate for each position, nominations should be opened from the floor to allow the members to propose additional names. I'm not clear on whether or not you've eliminated any nominations other than those from the nominating committee, and, if so, why?

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No suspending those bylaws -- for shame to even think of it!

Suggestion: if you have time, propose a bylaw amendment to rescind the "no floor nominations" rule, and (with luck) adopt the amendment before the elections get under way. That way dark horses (AKA "compromise candidate(s)") could be floor nominated after a few rounds of non-majority voting.

3 positions, 10 candidates, 100 voters? Seems unlikely that you get NO majority winners first time around. (Unless the candidates are all great - or all turkeys). Don't forget (1) that each voter gets to vote for his three preferred candidates and (2) when any candidate gets a majority he is then elected and the field that is running is reduced by one. So the next round is that much better. I think, based on personal experience, that you may be more worried than you need be. And you could (informally) "lean" on some of the low-vote candidates to withdraw - but you didn't hear that from me!

Maybe consider "Borda Count" (ranked and weighted) voting in the future if you think the problem will persist. That is a long-range solution, however.

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While the Nominating Committee can nominate as many people per position that it wishes, generally it should pick the best candidate it can find for each position and let others be nominated from the floor. I concur that the By-law removing the right of members to nominate from the floor should be removed, I am gussing that the nominating committee gets around the By-law by nominating everyone who wishes to be elected especially as they are nominating 10 people for three positions.

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Regarding no nominations from the floor, I perceive the intent of the constitution/bylaw committee (which a year ago, without my involvement, made a wholesale change to the former document) intended to provide a list of nominees that would not only be qualified, but with enough candidates to provide a choice to the membership (including stating that it should take into consideration diversity issues - age, race, ethnically, gender - in determining its recommended slate).

Had it been opened to floor nominations, it could turn into a popularity contest. The current bylaws require a minimum of two and not more than four nominees for each open position. True, if we find that two on the ballot receive a majority on the first ballot, only one more need be elected, but that won't completely help the situation since each member has only one vote to select from the remaining eight candidates which might take many ballots. Is it appropriate (without causing hard feelings of those nominated) to announce the numerical results of the first and subsequent ballots so the members might see if there might be a close majority for one or two of those remaining? RONR strongly recommends that no one be dropped from the ballot. There is no way to amend these bylaws prior to the November vote. I am aware that even considering suspending the rules is always a concern. More thoughts?

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Regarding no nominations from the floor, I perceive the intent of the constitution/bylaw committee (which a year ago, without my involvement, made a wholesale change to the former document) intended to provide a list of nominees that would not only be qualified, but with enough candidates to provide a choice to the membership (including stating that it should take into consideration diversity issues - age, race, ethnically, gender - in determining its recommended slate).

Had it been opened to floor nominations, it could turn into a popularity contest. The current bylaws require a minimum of two and not more than four nominees for each open position. True, if we find that two on the ballot receive a majority on the first ballot, only one more need be elected, but that won't completely help the situation since each member has only one vote to select from the remaining eight candidates which might take many ballots. Is it appropriate (without causing hard feelings of those nominated) to announce the numerical results of the first and subsequent ballots so the members might see if there might be a close majority for one or two of those remaining? RONR strongly recommends that no one be dropped from the ballot. There is no way to amend these bylaws prior to the November vote. I am aware that even considering suspending the rules is always a concern. More thoughts?

Am I to understand that your procedure is for the nominating committee to report back the names of several nominees, nominees are added from the floor, and then they are elected to a candidacy, which is then sent out by absentee ballot? If this is the case, this seems particularly far afield of Robert's Rules and, while we could help you in applying the principles---ultimately it is up to you and your organization to interpret your bylaws as a whole.

EDIT: I should add that for positions without a well-defined number of persons to be elected, the best approach is to decide in advance of balloting how many positions will be filled. If this is not done, I've seen varying opinions on the approach here. The simplest is to simply continue rounds of balloting until sufficient have been elected, even if this is below the maximum (so in your example, if only two received a majority on the first ballot, then balloting would stop as two is enough). Regardless, you should decide on this as a group before the balloting.

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Is it appropriate (without causing hard feelings of those nominated) to announce the numerical results of the first and subsequent ballots so the members might see if there might be a close majority for one or two of those remaining? RONR strongly recommends that no one be dropped from the ballot. There is no way to amend these bylaws prior to the November vote. I am aware that even considering suspending the rules is always a concern. More thoughts?

It is both helpful and required to announce the results of each ballot (p. 418). See also p. 441 fn.

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From Sean Hunt: Am I to understand that your procedure is for the nominating committee to report back the names of several nominees, nominees are added from the floor, and then they are elected to a candidacy, which is then sent out by absentee ballot? If this is the case, this seems particularly far afield of Robert's Rules and, while we could help you in applying the principles---ultimately it is up to you and your organization to interpret your bylaws as a whole.

* * * * * *

No. Nominating Committee selects the candidates using suggestions from others and within the committee itself. That then creates the slate presented to the members for voting by ballot at the meeting.

Thank you J.J. for your direction. After all of these years, how we could have overlooked this provision which, when executed, should pretty much get us where we want to go !!

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No. Nominating Committee selects the candidates using suggestions from others and within the committee itself. That then creates the slate presented to the members for voting by ballot at the meeting.

Oh, okay, I apologize for misunderstanding then. Unless your bylaws prohibit nominations from the floor, they must be asked for before the balloting, so if for some reason the Nominating Committee's report is declared invalid, there is no reason that members could not nominate the members that the committee would have.

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