Division Of Assembly

[Guest WahooNeb]

When an amendment to a main motion is made, seconded, discussed and the vote is Yes on all but one member who abstains, voting done by each member casting their vote one at a time, is there an acceptable procedure that allows for a call for Division of the Assembly? The request for a Division of the Assembly was called when the Main Motion was placed before the assembly. RROO, newly Revised 10th Edition, documents the procedure for Division of Assembly as the procedure that is taken when the chair announces the decision of the vote taken be voice vote or by raising of hands Yea, Nay and there is an opportunity for the results to have been in error.

This appears to be a procedure that confirms the results of the previous motion before going on to the next motion.

In our case the motion to amend the main motion was approved 19 to 0; one abstain. Then the main motion was called and the person who abstained asked for a Division of Assembly before voting on the main motion. All of that seems to be out of order to me. Am I correct? I have edition 10 of the RROO and have read pages 44-45 , 49-50 and 270 - 273 before posing my question. The chair recognized the request for Division of Assembly with the following comment.

“The chair recognizes the member’s request for a Division of the Assembly. That motion is understood as a request that the votes for each member be recorded by the Secretary and the tally by member be available for publication upon request.”

“In a meeting, a call for a Division of the Assembly may be made from the time that the first negative vote is cast until the vote is complete and requires that members indicate their votes in a public manner. In our electronic format, members do not know when (or if) a negative vote has been cast. Accordingly, the call for a Division of the Assembly has theimpact of making members aware that their individual vote on this motion will be matter of public record and will be available upon request.”

[Bruce Lages]

A division of the assembly is not "a request that the votes for each member be recorded by the Secretary and the tally by member be available for publication upon request.” A roll call vote is the means by which each member's vote is recorded by the secretary. And while each individual vote is preserved in the minutes, there is certainly no reference in RONR for the tally being made available for publication upon request.

If your 19 - 0 vote on the amendment was indeed a counted vote, I think I would rule that a motion for a division is dilatory, and therefore not in order.

[Gary Novosielski]

The chair is apparently confusing a Division of the Assembly with a roll-call vote. Since the vote was apparently already taken by roll-call, a division of the assembly at that point would be nonsensical.