Officer Elections

[Guest Hollie]

When electing officers, our organization says the person with the majority of the votes that were cast receives the appointment to office.  However, when faced with the situation of some votes being cast for members not nominated and/or fictional characters, what should happen.  Should there be a revote or should the incorrect votes cast be thrown out and not factored into the voting strength?

[George Mervosh]

When electing officers, our organization says the person with the majority of the votes that were cast receives the appointment to office.  However, when faced with the situation of some votes being cast for members not nominated and/or fictional characters, what should happen.  Should there be a revote or should the incorrect votes cast be thrown out and not factored into the voting strength?

 

They are all treated as votes cast and counted.  Members not nominated are credited their votes, since write-ins are always permitted under RONR (they might even win) and the fictional characters get counted as illegal votes credited to no one.

 

"All ballots that indicate a preference—provided they have been cast by persons entitled to vote—are taken into account in determining the number of votes cast for purposes of computing the majority. Each such ballot is credited to the voter's preferred candidate or choice if the meaning of the ballot is clear and the choice is valid. Unintelligible ballots or ballots cast for an unidentifiable or ineligible candidate are treated instead as illegal votes —that is, they are counted as votes cast but are not credited to any candidate or choice."  RONR (11th ed.), pp. 415-6

[Guest Guest]

Thank you very much.  That clarifies the situation perfectly.