Voting on a motion made in an Executive Board Meeting

[Guest Hobbes]

I am looking for information (or a ruling) to determine if the following vote on a motion - held during the course of an Executive Board Meeting, where the full 10 members were present, is correct and thus allowing Candidate E to be upgraded.

The motion before the Executive Board was whether to upgrade Candidate E and the votes were 5 Yes; 3 No; and 2 Abstain.

It is my understanding that a majority of votes (6) is needed for this motion to be approved and the 2 abstains would count as 'No' (against the motion to upgrade.

Following this meeting the Secretary pointed out his concern to the President - indicating that this motion may need to be re-visited as he felt the majority (6 votes) would be needed to pass the motion, not the 5 votes received. The President (and the individual who made the motion) both felt that the 'Abstain' votes do not count and that the motion did pass as noted.

[David A Foulkes]

I am looking for information (or a ruling) to determine if the following vote on a motion - held during the course of an Executive Board Meeting, where the full 10 members were present, is correct and thus allowing Candidate E to be upgraded.

The motion before the Executive Board was whether to upgrade Candidate E and the votes were 5 Yes; 3 No; and 2 Abstain.

It is my understanding that a majority of votes (6) is needed for this motion to be approved and the 2 abstains would count as 'No' (against the motion to upgrade.

Following this meeting the Secretary pointed out his concern to the President - indicating that this motion may need to be re-visited as he felt the majority (6 votes) would be needed to pass the motion, not the 5 votes received. The President (and the individual who made the motion) both felt that the 'Abstain' votes do not count and that the motion did pass as noted.

The only time abstentions have the effect of a no vote is when the vote required is of the members present or of the entire membership. For most motions, this is not the case. A majority vote (more than half of the votes cast) is all it takes, as is probably the case here. RONR has nothing to say about the motion to "upgrade" a candidate (whatever that means), so you'll need to turn to your rules (bylaws, etc) for the answer to that.

Where does your "understanding that a majority (6) is needed for this motion" come from?

[Gary Novosielski]

I am looking for information (or a ruling) to determine if the following vote on a motion - held during the course of an Executive Board Meeting, where the full 10 members were present, is correct and thus allowing Candidate E to be upgraded.

The motion before the Executive Board was whether to upgrade Candidate E and the votes were 5 Yes; 3 No; and 2 Abstain.

It is my understanding that a majority of votes (6) is needed for this motion to be approved and the 2 abstains would count as 'No' (against the motion to upgrade.

Following this meeting the Secretary pointed out his concern to the President - indicating that this motion may need to be re-visited as he felt the majority (6 votes) would be needed to pass the motion, not the 5 votes received. The President (and the individual who made the motion) both felt that the 'Abstain' votes do not count and that the motion did pass as noted.

There were only eight (5+3) votes cast, so a majority is five, not six. A "majority vote" means a majority of the votes cast, not a majority of the people present, unless your bylaws have some sort of special rule on this.