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Erroneous Voting Majority


Guest William Cameron

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We are an HOA that has a Master Board of 4 individuals who are representatives from our 4 Regimes.

Our Bylaws dictate that 67% is the quorum to vote at meetings.

We also adopted an Article for voting in our bylaws that stated the Regime has the # of votes according to the # of condos in their regime.

 

Our Master Board composed a committee to assist in selecting the Property Management Company.

The Regimes within our resort are divided 2 by 2 on which PM company to select.

We also adopted Roberts Rules of Order to follow in our bylaws and my question is in regards to the Majority Rule and an erroneous definition.

 

Regime 1 267 condos

Regime 2 251 condos

Regime 3 322 condos

Regime 4 157 condos

TOTAL 997 Condos

51% of that would be 508 votes

The two regimes that voted to go with a new PM Company has more than the 51% but less than the 67%

 

My question --the 67% to our resort would mean that for all issues voting on 3 of the 4 regimes would have to say YES --which many times does not happen and we have 2 to 2 and A TIE --which I believe makes an erroneous defintion with the 67% ---

 

Therefore in order for business to MOVE FORWARD Roberts Rules of Order pertaining to Majority Rule should APPLY.

 

AM I CORRECT

cameronwdc@sc.rr.com

 

 

 

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We are an HOA that has a Master Board of 4 individuals who are representatives from our 4 Regimes.

Our Bylaws dictate that 67% is the quorum to vote at meetings.

We also adopted an Article for voting in our bylaws that stated the Regime has the # of votes according to the # of condos in their regime.

 

Our Master Board composed a committee to assist in selecting the Property Management Company.

The Regimes within our resort are divided 2 by 2 on which PM company to select.

We also adopted Roberts Rules of Order to follow in our bylaws and my question is in regards to the Majority Rule and an erroneous definition.

 

Regime 1 267 condos

Regime 2 251 condos

Regime 3 322 condos

Regime 4 157 condos

TOTAL 997 Condos

51% of that would be 508 votes

The two regimes that voted to go with a new PM Company has more than the 51% but less than the 67%

 

My question --the 67% to our resort would mean that for all issues voting on 3 of the 4 regimes would have to say YES --which many times does not happen and we have 2 to 2 and A TIE --which I believe makes an erroneous defintion with the 67% ---

 

Therefore in order for business to MOVE FORWARD Roberts Rules of Order pertaining to Majority Rule should APPLY.

 

AM I CORRECT

cameronwdc@sc.rr.com

 

You seem to be mixing up the quorum requirement with the voting requirement.

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As Mr. Honemann notes, you need to separate the concepts of a quorum and the vote required to adopt a motion.  The quorum is simply the number of condos that must be present to conduct business (67% per your facts).  The vote required to adopt a motion, per your facts, seems to be 51%.   As long as a quorum is present, any motion which achieves at least a 51% vote should be considered adopted.

 

 

(Just note in Robert's Rules, it never mentions a majority being 51%, rather it means more than half, that's all)

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We also adopted Roberts Rules of Order to follow in our bylaws and my question is in regards to the Majority Rule and an erroneous definition.

 

Regime 1 267 condos

Regime 2 251 condos

Regime 3 322 condos

Regime 4 157 condos

TOTAL 997 Condos

51% of that would be 508 votes

AM I CORRECT

cameronwdc@sc.rr.com

 

Not so far.  Do your bylaws call for a majority vote for something to pass or do they actually specify 51%?  As others pointed out, a majority is more than half.... not 51%.

 

If the bylaws call for a majority, that would be 499 votes if everyone votes (or if the bylaws require the vote of a majority of all the units).

 

And if the bylaws actually specify 51%, it would take 509 votes, not 508.   508 is less than 51%.

 

My question --the 67% to our resort would mean that for all issues voting on 3 of the 4 regimes would have to say YES --which many times does not happen and we have 2 to 2 and A TIE --which I believe makes an erroneous defintion with the 67% ---

 

Therefore in order for business to MOVE FORWARD Roberts Rules of Order pertaining to Majority Rule should APPLY.

 

AM I CORRECT

cameronwdc@sc.rr.com

 

You've lost me here.  But, as Dan said, I think you may be confusing the quorum requirement with the vote requirement. 

 

Edited to add:  One more question:  Do your bylaws call for a majority (or 51%) of the total units to vote yes for a motion to pass or do they call for a "majority vote" (or 51% vote), which, unless specified otherwise, would be a majority (or 51%) of the units present and voting, assuming a quorum is present?   (I keep putting 51% in parentheses because you said it requires a 51% vote....which, as several of us have said, is not the same thing as a majority).  The precise wording of your bylaws re the vote requirement is very important here.  Words mean things, especially when it comes to vote requirements.

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True, but irrelevant in this case, since any combination of votes will have more than 51% on one side of the issue or the other.

 

Very litte of what RONR says is more relevant than the definition of a majority and a majority vote, especially when our initial poster states:  "Therefore in order for business to MOVE FORWARD Roberts Rules of Order pertaining to Majority Rule should APPLY."

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Very litte of what RONR says is more relevant than the definition of a majority and a majority vote, especially when our initial poster states:  "Therefore in order for business to MOVE FORWARD Roberts Rules of Order pertaining to Majority Rule should APPLY."

 

It is irrelevant to what the OP asked because it isn't going to change anything. The OP isn't asking whether to use a majority or 51%, but whether something less than 67% can be used. Assuming that the OP just doesn't understand the concept of a quorum, the answer is that the 67% is not required. On the other hand, if the OP is correct that the bylaws require 67%, then the majority vs. 51% thing still doesn't matter, since they would be stuck with what the bylaws require anyway.

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