Electing Two Board Members with Equal Terms

[Guest Laura C. Bourgeois, CAE]

Our Executive Board has been electing two four-year board members every two years for quite a while.  Convention delegates elect one four-year board member and one two-year board member.  (We're on a two-year cycle.)  Our board is considering allowing convention delegates to elect two four-year board members while the board would elect only one.  However, we need to do a lot more study.

It was suggested that the candidate getting the highest number of votes would get one position and the second-highest, the other.  Some feel that "This is the type of voting procedure that some object to for mathematical reasons."

Another suggestion was that candidates could run for "board position #1" and "board position #2."  However, if one slot got one candidate and the other got six, that would unfair.  

I would very much appreciate knowing if anyone else's delegates elect two (or more) board positions with equitable terms, and how you do it.  Thanks so much!

Laura
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Laura Bourgeois CAE
Executive Administrator
Alpha Delta Kappa Sorority Inc
Kansas City MO
(816) 363-5525

[Guest Nancy N.]

First let me suggest that you don't post so much personal contact information over the Internet.  Sure, you may figure, how harmful or ill-intentioned might parliamentarians (or aspiring parliamentarians like me) conceivably be?  (Discourtesy is a monstrous ethical violation, if I remember the adopted code correctly, which is unlikely.)  But Internet trolls lurk everywhere.  I advise you ask the administrator to allow you to edit your original post ...

.. It was suggested that the candidate getting the highest number of votes would get one position and the second-highest, the other.  Some feel that "This is the type of voting procedure that some object to for mathematical reasons.". ...

 

It's not just some obscure arcane abstract mathematical question.  It's the fundamental parliamentary principle (and, not accidentally, a fundamental principle of democracy) that a question should be decided by at least a majority of those involved.  No?

 

... Another suggestion was that candidates could run for "board position #1" and "board position #2."  However, if one slot got one candidate and the other got six, that would unfair.   ...

 

I'm not following all your organization's intricacies, Ms. Bourgeois, but I think the above principle applies:  if a slot has only one candidate, the assembly can elect him or her, or find someone else (more on this if you want); and if a slot has six candidates, the fundamental principle still requires that a successful candidate receives a majority vote -- that is, more than the rest of them combined. (With a field of six candidates, that might very well require repeated balloting.)

[Edgar Guest]

I'm a bit confused but, if the two positions are identical then you don't have to differentiate between them. Members are instructed to vote for up to two candidates and the two candidates with the most votes (assuming each receives a least a majority of the votes cast) are elected.

[Gary Novosielski]

First of all, any of these election matters that are contained in your bylaws (and I'm assuming they are, because they're not in RONR) would have to be changed through the process of bylaws amendment, following the procedure that's outlined in the bylaws themselves.

 

The rules in RONR provide that anyone elected to office must achieve a majority of the votes cast.  For single offices, that means they must get more than all other candidates combined.  

 

For multiple identical offices, such as "board member" where there is truly no difference between the offices, you would mark the ballots, say, "Vote for two"   In that case, to be elected, their name must appear on more than half of the ballots actually cast for that office.   The highest two would be elected, providing both of them got a majority of the votes cast.  If not all seats were filled by that process, additional balloting would be needed until all seats are filled by majority winners.