Reporting vote by mail election results

[Guest Brad]

The organization's bylaws allow for vote by mail elections, and RONR is followed. I know that the vote tallies have to be entered into the minutes. I looked in the 11th Ed of RONR and did not locate answers to the following questions: What is the proper method for announcing the results to the membership? Should it be by mail as the voting was conducted that way? Should the actual tallies be reported or just who was elected to what office?

Thanks,

Brad

[jstackpo]

Schedule the mail vote to be completed prior to the Annual Meeting - I presume that is when the turnover of officers takes place. Then announce the results -- tellers report -- at that time and proceed as in Chapter XIII. This way, if there are any difficulties (tie votes, &c.) they can be cleared up at the Annual Meeting (bylaws would have to say how) and the winners can be declared to be the new officers.

[Guest Brad]

The challenge is that the Annual Meeting is 1000 miles away, and we have locals across the country. The election is held by mail and independtly of the Annual Meeting. So is there any information about the proper method for reporting election results to the membership? Do tallies of votes need to be announced? If so, are their any guidelines about how to distribute that information?

[jstackpo]

RONR, originally written in the 19th century, sort of shows its age in this respect, in that it implicitly assumes that it is dealing with local associations which can get together from time to time. It concentrates on how to run the meetings when they do get together. There are still plenty of organizations that fit that mold, your "locals" included.

So... what this means is that your bylaws will have to take over and supply the details needed for national (and international) operations with what RONR would call absentee votes.

By analogy with what is spelled out for local meetings, however, full openness is the rule -- publish (you decide what "publish" means and how) the full tally of the votes and distribute (somehow) them to everyone. Perhaps posting on a web-page would do it, but put that in the bylaws with alternatives for those members without easy access to the Internet, &c.