Vote Procedure

[Guest Gerri]

Is it acceptable to take a vote by exception or must each voting member be asked to render a vote?

[tctheatc]

...take a vote by exception...

I don't know what that means, but I do know a member cannot be forced to vote; one has a right to abstain.

RONR p 407 ll12-19

[Tim Wynn]

Is it acceptable to take a vote by exception or must each voting member be asked to render a vote?

Please clarify.

[Guest Gerri]

Taking a "vote by exception" means asking the group "Does anyone not concur with this motion?" As opposed to going around the room and having each voting member submit an indivisual vote of either "Yes" or "No". It's a short-cut that one of my voting members keeps bringing up citing Robert's Rules of Order allows for it, but in eery Parliamentary procedure I've been in, each voting member's name was called for him/her to officially enter their vote (whether it is by electronic vote, verbal vote or by vote card). So my question is: Does Robert's Rule say it's okay to "vote by exception"? Thanks for your brain power on this one.

[J. J.]

I think this would be treated as unanimous consent, i.e. "If there are no objections, the motion is adopted."

[Trina]

The unanimous consent approach is not appropriate for any and every motion, though... in case that is what your member is suggesting.

Suppose a controversial motion is before the assembly; in that case it would not be correct to simply say, "If there are no objections, the motion is adopted" (or, "Does anyone not concur with this motion?" in your version). This would not be an appropriate 'short-cut' except when dealing with uncontroversial matters.

Also, you mention that every parliamentary reference you've checked refers to calling each member's name in turn; actually, a roll call vote is not the default method of conducting a vote under RONR.

[Tim Wynn]

Taking a "vote by exception" means asking the group "Does anyone not concur with this motion?" As opposed to going around the room and having each voting member submit an indivisual vote of either "Yes" or "No". It's a short-cut that one of my voting members keeps bringing up citing Robert's Rules of Order allows for it, but in eery Parliamentary procedure I've been in, each voting member's name was called for him/her to officially enter their vote (whether it is by electronic vote, verbal vote or by vote card). So my question is: Does Robert's Rule say it's okay to "vote by exception"? Thanks for your brain power on this one.

See RONR (11th ed.), pp. 54-56, for Unanimous Consent.

However, the normal method of taking a vote is by voice, in which case the chair instructs those in favor to say "aye," followed by instructed those opposed to say "no." This method takes much less time than the process of calling upon each member to register a vote, as you detail above.