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Death of person on election ballot


Guest Elissa Rudolph

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Hi,

6 people are vying for 3 board positions, 2 for each position - president, first vp & second vp. Ballots have been out since mid-December with the final count to be done in conjunction with a monthly association meeting, Thurs., Jan. 19. Very much a contested election. Person running for second vp died this past Monday. Does other person running for same position automatically become second vp even if when votes are tallied, dead person had more votes?

Thanks for any advice anyone can offer.

Elissa (live person running for second vp)

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Does other person running for same position automatically become second vp even if when votes are tallied, dead person had more votes?

No. If you elect someone who is unable to serve, you vote again. So tell everyone not to vote for the dead guy (although it wouldn't be the first time a dead guy was elected <insert Wikipedia link here>).

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No. If you elect someone who is unable to serve, you vote again. So tell everyone not to vote for the dead guy (although it wouldn't be the first time a dead guy was elected <insert Wikipedia link here>).

That's hardly helpful since "Person running for second vp died this past Monday." and the meeting is tomorrow and the ballots have been out there a month before the man passed, but your preceeding advice is spot on, of course.

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That's hardly helpful since "Person running for second vp died this past Monday." and the meeting is tomorrow and the ballots have been out there a month before the man passed, but your preceeding advice is spot on, of course.

Ballots will be counted tonight - Joe the dead guy will no doubt get votes. I am the other person - I will get votes too, but if his number is higher, do I take the position cause I ran for it & "won" it more or less by fate.

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Ballots will be counted tonight - Joe the dead guy will no doubt get votes. I am the other person - I will get votes too, but if his number is higher, do I take the position cause I ran for it & "won" it more or less by fate.

Nope. If you don't receive a majority of votes, you don't win. If Joe the dead guy does, you(r members) will need to vote a second time. Votes cast for ineligible persons are considered "illegal" votes although they do count as votes cast, they just aren't assigned to any candidate. (RONR 11th Ed., p. 416 ll. 2-5)

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. . . do I take the position cause I ran for it & "won" it more or less by fate.

I'm afraid the answer remains the same: No.

As stated, if the dead guy wins, another round of voting is in order. Obviously this may be inconvenient if absentee voting is permitted in your organization (as it appears to be) but those are the breaks. You might want to consider amending your bylaws to adopt some sort of procedure in case an ineligible (e.g. dead) person is elected (or in the case of a tie), but that won't help you this time around.

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Thanks for the reference to the RONR book - I have that - and I guess I can see that there should be another round of voting, should I not attain a majority. We will see tonight how it goes. Should the 3 new people (of which I am one) get into office, it will be better for the org. all around. I'll keep you posted.

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