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Plurality-at-Large Voting


Watson

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The Assembly must elect four of its members to four identical positions on a committee. There is no rule as to how the election is to be conducted.

By default, should each candidate be voted on separately in the order of nomination until four have received a majority from those present and voting?

If four or more members are nominated, but many of us are willing to vote for the election of only three of the nominees, can a motion to elect by Plurality-at-Large voting be passed at this time, or must the motion be made before the call for nominations?

[in Plurality-at-Large voting all candidates run against each other for n number of positions. Each voter selects up to n candidates on the ballot, and the n candidates with the most votes win the positions. Voters are niot allowed to vote for the same candidate more than once.]

Thank you.

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The Assembly must elect four of its members to four identical positions on a committee. There is no rule as to how the election is to be conducted.

By default, should each candidate be voted on separately in the order of nomination until four have received a majority from those present and voting?

If four or more members are nominated, but many of us are willing to vote for the election of only three of the nominees, can a motion to elect by Plurality-at-Large voting be passed at this time, or must the motion be made before the call for nominations?

[in Plurality-at-Large voting all candidates run against each other for n number of positions. Each voter selects up to n candidates on the ballot, and the n candidates with the most votes win the positions. Voters are niot allowed to vote for the same candidate more than once.]

Thank you.

See RONR (11th ed.), p. 441, ll. 11-24.

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If four or more members are nominated, but many of us are willing to vote for the election of only three of the nominees, can a motion to elect by Plurality-at-Large voting be passed at this time, or must the motion be made before the call for nominations?

[in Plurality-at-Large voting all candidates run against each other for n number of positions. Each voter selects up to n candidates on the ballot, and the n candidates with the most votes win the positions. Voters are niot allowed to vote for the same candidate more than once.]

Plurality voting would require a special rule of order, and it must be adopted prior to the election. It's also not recommended.

See the pages Mr. Wynn cited for how you should do it.

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The Assembly must elect four of its members to four identical positions on a committee. There is no rule as to how the election is to be conducted.

By default, should each candidate be voted on separately in the order of nomination until four have received a majority from those present and voting?

If four or more members are nominated, but many of us are willing to vote for the election of only three of the nominees, can a motion to elect by Plurality-at-Large voting be passed at this time, or must the motion be made before the call for nominations?

[in Plurality-at-Large voting all candidates run against each other for n number of positions. Each voter selects up to n candidates on the ballot, and the n candidates with the most votes win the positions. Voters are niot allowed to vote for the same candidate more than once.]

Thank you.

If you want to use a ballot, you can certainly list all the names and add the instruction "Vote for N" on the ballot. This does not require the use of Plurality voting, and is recommended under RONR where the positions are identical. Voters may vote for any number of candidates from 1 to N (or could abstain by leaving all blank), but marking more than N candidates would invalidate the ballot, and no, you cannot vote more than once for the same candidate. Spaces for Write-Ins should be included.

The difference between what you're suggesting and what's permitted under RONR is that you would elect the top N vote-getters who achieve a majority. I.e., they would need to have received a vote on more than half of the ballots cast (not counting abstentions).

If you fail to elect N people, you would hold additional rounds of balloting to elect the remaining unfilled positions, in the same way.

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