weighted vote

[Guest BlkBlt Golfer]

Several years ago our Board reduced its size based on a change to a statutory formula, but the revised statute provided for weighted voting pursuant to the bylaws. Our bylaws are silent on what can/must be the subject of a weighted vote. Is there any guidance in Roberts Rules regarding what can and cannot be the subject of a weighted vote? I've searched the indicies and have been unable to find anything helpful. I did find one post that indicated that RONR did not favor weighted voting. I was hoping to find that only the original action item, as it may be amended, would be eligible, and not procedural motions, but have been unable to find anything supporting the inclusion of such a bylaw. Is anyone aware of anything which could make such a bylaw improper?

[Chris Harrison]

What do you mean by a "weighted vote"? RONR doesn't use that term though it might use different terminology.

[Guest BlkBlt Golfer]

In this case, for example, each director from one city on a weighted vote basis would be entitled to his vote counting as 2.5 votes. The intent was to keep the same voting power as existed at the time of the statutory change. So cities that had only 1 director before would still have one vote, but thoses cities where their number of directors were reduced, the total for all of that city's directors vote would be worth the same as before the change.

[jstackpo]

You are free to put such a weighted vote into your bylaws, by your regular amendment rules.

But think long and hard first. Think about two senators from Delaware vs. two from California - sort of a reverse weighted vote in terms of people representation.

[Guest Edgar]

Think about two senators from Delaware vs. two from California - sort of a reverse weighted vote in terms of people representation.

Or think about California's 53 Representatives vs. those states, such as Vermont, with only one.

[Gary Novosielski]

Several years ago our Board reduced its size based on a change to a statutory formula, but the revised statute provided for weighted voting pursuant to the bylaws. Our bylaws are silent on what can/must be the subject of a weighted vote. Is there any guidance in Roberts Rules regarding what can and cannot be the subject of a weighted vote? I've searched the indicies and have been unable to find anything helpful. I did find one post that indicated that RONR did not favor weighted voting. I was hoping to find that only the original action item, as it may be amended, would be eligible, and not procedural motions, but have been unable to find anything supporting the inclusion of such a bylaw. Is anyone aware of anything which could make such a bylaw improper?

As far as RONR is concerned, it's "One person, one vote." If you want weighted voting, you'll have to write the rules yourself, without help from RONR.

[Guest BlkBlt Golfer]

Thanks for the responses. Unfortunately, whether there is or is not weighted voting is out of my control. Tried to dissuade them before it went into the statute, but was unsuccessful.

[Gary Novosielski]

Thanks for the responses. Unfortunately, whether there is or is not weighted voting is out of my control. Tried to dissuade them before it went into the statute, but was unsuccessful.

What you said was that weighted voting was allowed, "pursuant to the bylaws", which sounds to me like you still have a choice on whether or not to adopt that method in your own bylaws. If you have not actually done so, then weighted voting is not for you. Or perhaps your paraphrase of the statute is less than complete.

[Guest BlkBlt Golfer]

What the statute says is "except when a weighted vote is conducted in accordance with the bylaws". The problem is that the Board required that a bylaw be drafted before the statutory change, but it was only to address the mechanics of how the weighted vote would work, not when a weighted vote could be utilized. Right now, all action items that are not unanimous are weighted votes, but I want to include a bylaw provision that a weighted vote will not be utilized for anything else, e.g. motions to lay on the table, amend an action item, postpone to a date certain, etc. The question came up recently and my opinion was that the intent of the statute was to only have weighted votes on action items, but the bylaws were not specific. It's a mess!

[g40]

Sine this weighted voting is related to statutory requirements/issues, perhaps there are other entitities similarly affected. You may want to check with how those organizations deal with the issue.