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Violation of Absentee Member Rights?


BJBerli

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Our bylaws were amended by our BOD granting full voting rights to our Class II members. Prior to this change these members could not vote on any association business. No formal announcement of this amendment was distributed to the membership nor specifically the Class II members.

This is an election year and the first time Class II members will be able to vote. In reviewing the formal election notices, it was determined that Class II members were not included on the distribution. A limited survey of Class II members Inquiring "Have you cast your vote in the 2011 election?" all responded with "No, I did not know I could".

Absentee voting ended Nov 1. The election process ends Nov 3. Class II members who cannot attend the general meeting in person therefore were denied their right to vote per the bylaws, Inclusion of Class II member votes, will impact the results of the election of officers.

Questions:

  1. Just because the Class II members did not know they could vote in the current election does that lack of knowledge indicate a violation of rights under RONR?
  2. Is the current election still considered valid if all eligible voting class of members did not participate?

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Our bylaws were amended by our BOD granting full voting rights to our Class II members. Prior to this change these members could not vote on any association business. No formal announcement of this amendment was distributed to the membership nor specifically the Class II members.

This is an election year and the first time Class II members will be able to vote. In reviewing the formal election notices, it was determined that Class II members were not included on the distribution. A limited survey of Class II members Inquiring "Have you cast your vote in the 2011 election?" all responded with "No, I did not know I could".

Absentee voting ended Nov 1. The election process ends Nov 3. Class II members who cannot attend the general meeting in person therefore were denied their right to vote per the bylaws, Inclusion of Class II member votes, will impact the results of the election of officers.

Questions:

  1. Just because the Class II members did not know they could vote in the current election does that lack of knowledge indicate a violation of rights under RONR?
  2. Is the current election still considered valid if all eligible voting class of members did not participate?

1. There is no rule in RONR that requires members to be informed of their rights.

2. There is no requirement in RONR that all members or classes of members must participate for an election to be valid.

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Unfortunately, all RONR says about bylaws is:

It is a good policy for every member on joining the society to be given a copy of the bylaws, printed together with the corporate charter, if there is one, and any special rules of order or standing rules that the society may have adopted

Robert, Henry M. III (2011-09-27). Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 11th edition (Kindle Locations 1491-1492). Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.

That's certainly not as strong a rule as I'd like to see, because clearly if the board passes things in secret, the members have no way of knowing what rights they have.

But if prior notice of an election is required, then surely that notice must go to all members eligible to vote, or am I living in a dream world?

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I have eligible to be a member (Compatriot) of the Sons of the American Revolution since my 18th birthday. I did not know I was eligible for about 32 years after that. That in no way invalidates any election they have held in the interrum.

Not a perfect analogy, but close enough. :)

Only if you think that not being a member is "close" to being a member.

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Our bylaws were amended by our BOD granting full voting rights to our Class II members. Prior to this change these members could not vote on any association business. No formal announcement of this amendment was distributed to the membership nor specifically the Class II members.

This is an election year and the first time Class II members will be able to vote. In reviewing the formal election notices, it was determined that Class II members were not included on the distribution. A limited survey of Class II members Inquiring "Have you cast your vote in the 2011 election?" all responded with "No, I did not know I could".

Absentee voting ended Nov 1. The election process ends Nov 3. Class II members who cannot attend the general meeting in person therefore were denied their right to vote per the bylaws, Inclusion of Class II member votes, will impact the results of the election of officers.

Questions:

  1. Just because the Class II members did not know they could vote in the current election does that lack of knowledge indicate a violation of rights under RONR?
  2. Is the current election still considered valid if all eligible voting class of members did not participate?

But, what about the bolded information in BJBerli's post? Regardless of whether it was imperative to inform the Class II members of the amendment to the bylaws, those members should have been treated the same as all the other members when it came to distribution of election notices, right? If there was a distribution of absentee ballots (certainly possible, since the OP mentions absentee voting), the newly enfranchised members should have received ballots along with everyone else.

BJBerli, what exactly was the nature of the election notices that were distributed? And is their distribution mandated by the bylaws?

-- slightly edited, after more carefully reading the earlier responses from other posters --

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But guys (meaning Mssrs. Wynn and Novosielski), what about the bolded information in BJBerli's post? Regardless of whether it was imperative to inform the Class II members of the amendment to the bylaws, those members should have been treated the same as all the other members when it came to distribution of election notices, right? If there was a distribution of absentee ballots (certainly possible, since the OP mentions absentee voting), the newly enfranchised members should have received ballots along with everyone else.

BJBerli, what exactly was the nature of the election notices that were distributed? And is their distribution mandated by the bylaws?

Is there an "automatic" sending of the absentee ballots (assuming they are authorized).

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Greetings. my apologies for delay in response as this election processing happening now.

Ms. Trina - Your question: BJBerli, what exactly was the nature of the election notices that were distributed? And is their distribution mandated by the bylaws? The notice was in the form of an email from the President of the organization then followed by an email from the Electin Chair. Yes their distribution is mandated by our bylaws.

Mr. Britton - Your Question: Do the bylaws authorize absentee voting? Yes they bylaws authorize absentee voting. As I mentioned above; most members do not attend the annual general meeting in person. So absentee voting is a significant number of ballots received.

To J.J - Your Question; Is there an "automatic" sending of the absentee ballots (assuming they are authorized). I am not sure what you mean by "automatic". The ballots are sent via email to the membership it is also posted on the website. However, even if the Class II members received the ballots, they would just ignore them because they've never voted before and the thought would be this is not of their concern.

To Rev Ed: Your Question - What do the By-laws state about amendments to membership classes and/or to the By-laws themselves? The bylaws are silent on specific amendments to membership classes. They do detail amendments to the bylaws however, are silent on communication to members. A huge gap I am trying to address.

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...

In reviewing the formal election notices, it was determined that Class II members were not included on the distribution. A limited survey of Class II members Inquiring "Have you cast your vote in the 2011 election?" all responded with "No, I did not know I could".

...

...

Ms. Trina - Your question: BJBerli, what exactly was the nature of the election notices that were distributed? And is their distribution mandated by the bylaws? The notice was in the form of an email from the President of the organization then followed by an email from the Electin Chair. Yes their distribution is mandated by our bylaws.

...

Failure to send mandated notice to a subset of the voting members certainly sounds like a violation of the bylaws. Given that the Class II members apparently had no other way to know they could vote (no access to the bylaws changes), I think it could be argued that this was also a violation of absentee rights. Normally (under RONR) notice is not required for an annual meeting called for in the bylaws -- it is assumed members are responsible for being familiar with the bylaws, and for knowing that the annual meeting (and the normal business of the meeting, often including elections) will take place. However, in this situation it sounds as though the members had no way of being adequately familiar with the (amended) content of the bylaws.

I am curious what other posters will say about this.

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This is a violation of which right? The right to be notified of a right, despite no requirement for notice?

No FPPL or rule in RONR requires notice to be given when no notice is required to be given.

After reading earlier posts in this thread, again, it seems that there may be an issue of improper ballot distribution, which is a question the assembly must decide, and another reason absentee votes should not be mingled with votes cast in a meeting.

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Failure to send mandated notice to a subset of the voting members certainly sounds like a violation of the bylaws. Given that the Class II members apparently had no other way to know they could vote (no access to the bylaws changes), I think it could be argued that this was also a violation of absentee rights. Normally (under RONR) notice is not required for an annual meeting called for in the bylaws -- it is assumed members are responsible for being familiar with the bylaws, and for knowing that the annual meeting (and the normal business of the meeting, often including elections) will take place. However, in this situation it sounds as though the members had no way of being adequately familiar with the (amended) content of the bylaws.

I am curious what other posters will say about this.

This is a violation of which right? The right to be notified of a right, despite no requirement for notice?

No FPPL or rule in RONR requires notice to be given when no notice is required to be given.

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Greetings. my apologies for delay in response as this election processing happening now.

Ms. Trina - Your question: BJBerli, what exactly was the nature of the election notices that were distributed? And is their distribution mandated by the bylaws? The notice was in the form of an email from the President of the organization then followed by an email from the Electin Chair. Yes their distribution is mandated by our bylaws.

Were these sent to all the voting members?

To J.J - Your Question; Is there an "automatic" sending of the absentee ballots (assuming they are authorized). I am not sure what you mean by "automatic". The ballots are sent via email to the membership it is also posted on the website. However, even if the Class II members received the ballots, they would just ignore them because they've never voted before and the thought would be this is not of their concern.

If all voting members had access to the ballot, but some of them didn't vote, that would be no violation.

To Rev Ed: Your Question - What do the By-laws state about amendments to membership classes and/or to the By-laws themselves? The bylaws are silent on specific amendments to membership classes. They do detail amendments to the bylaws however, are silent on communication to members. A huge gap I am trying to address.

It is the members' duty to be informed of the bylaw changes. I would expect that members could, at least, request updated bylaws.

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This is a violation of which right? The right to be notified of a right, despite no requirement for notice?

No FPPL or rule in RONR requires notice to be given when no notice is required to be given.

I agree that it doesn't conform to the standard examples of violation of absentee rights. This is perhaps due to the fact that the organization has different classes of membership, which isn't contemplated under the rules in RONR. Thus, a weird situation can arise that isn't anticipated in the rules -- members being left unaware of their right to vote, apparently through no fault of their own.

Notice of the election was apparently required to be given under the organization's bylaws, although it does not appear to be a situation (elections occuring at an annual meeting) where RONR would require notice.

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To me, it sounds like this is a situation closest to where a mail-in ballot is being held, and some members did not receive ballots, which would render the entire vote null and void since the members were, in fact, denied the right to vote.

I will also very strongly repeat what RONR has to say about counting absentee ballots alongside presentee ballots: This should never, happen, ever. It's a recipe for disaster.

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To me, it sounds like this is a situation closest to where a mail-in ballot is being held, and some members did not receive ballots, which would render the entire vote null and void since the members were, in fact, denied the right to vote.

And yet:

However, even if the Class II members received the ballots, they would just ignore them because they've never voted before and the thought would be this is not of their concern.

Which leaves the more interesting (general) question:

Thus, a weird situation can arise that isn't anticipated in the rules -- members being left unaware of their right to vote, apparently through no fault of their own.

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