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Ballot Creation for Officer Election


Guest Finnese Woods

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Guest Finnese Woods

Officer elections just occurred this month for our organization.  Our nominating committee presented a slate for officers in March. A motion to close nominations was made at the March meeting, it was properly seconded and voted on by the body.  An eligible member who has been recovering from a health condition learned of the slate and decided that she was interested in running immediately following the close of nominations at the March meeting.  She contacted the nominating committee, the other slated candidate for the position and began campaigning for the position. On the date that elections were to take place which was in April, a motion was made to rescind the motion to close nominations, the motion was seconded and was passed by more than 2/3rds of the membership.  In anticipation the nominating committee created two ballots one with only the candidate that had been slated in March and another in anticipation including the member who had informed them after the slate had been presented. The member was nominated from the floor and once nominations were closed, the nominating committee passed out the ballots that included the previously slated candidate and it also included the newly nominated candidate since she had notified the nominating committee and had begun campaigning by notifying members of her intent and requesting their support.  Ironically, the newly nominated candidate won the election and the candidate that had been slated the prior month unfortunately lost.   

 

I was informed by my Parliamentarian that it was proper for the nominating committee to create two ballots with one having the name of the anticipated candidate who had been campaigning since the nominating committee was informed.

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The way all of this transpired wasn't exactly according to RONR, but the end result was proper:  Nominations were re-opened, the new candidate was nominated, and the ballots that were distributed had the names of both candidates on them.  The ballots, however, should have also included a blank space for a write in candidate unless your bylaws or rules specifically prohibit write in candidates.  Failure to  have done that would not void the election, though.

 

For the proper method of handling nominations and elections unless the bylaws or other rules spell out a different procedure can be found in RONR in chapter XIV on Nominations and Elections, pages 430-446.

 

Edited to add:  You might be careful about using the term "slate of officers" to describe the nominees.  Unless you have a rule to the contrary, the nominating committee comes up  with a list of "nominees", not a slate.  The term "slate" suggests that they must all be voted up or down as a group.  That isn't the case.  Nominees from the floor should be allowed as well as write in votes.  Some nominees might be elected and some might be defeated.  RONR uses the words nominee or nominees 41 times but does not once use the word "slate" in all of its 716 + pages.   (I come up with 828 pages after adding in the title pages, preface, introduction, separately numbered tinted pages, etc).

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Sounds to me that the NomCom did a good job anticipating the wishes of the assembly.  Whether it was "unfortunate" that the NomCom's choice or not was defeated, only time (and the operations of your association) will tell. 

 

BYT, it wasn't necessary to "rescind" the earlier closing of the nominations.  A motion to open nominations  --  majority vote  --  would have been quite enough. p. 289, line 7.

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Officer elections just occurred this month for our organization.  Our nominating committee presented a slate for officers in March. A motion to close nominations was made at the March meeting, it was properly seconded and voted on by the body.  An eligible member who has been recovering from a health condition learned of the slate and decided that she was interested in running immediately following the close of nominations at the March meeting.  She contacted the nominating committee, the other slated candidate for the position and began campaigning for the position. On the date that elections were to take place which was in April, a motion was made to rescind the motion to close nominations, the motion was seconded and was passed by more than 2/3rds of the membership.  In anticipation the nominating committee created two ballots one with only the candidate that had been slated in March and another in anticipation including the member who had informed them after the slate had been presented. The member was nominated from the floor and once nominations were closed, the nominating committee passed out the ballots that included the previously slated candidate and it also included the newly nominated candidate since she had notified the nominating committee and had begun campaigning by notifying members of her intent and requesting their support.  Ironically, the newly nominated candidate won the election and the candidate that had been slated the prior month unfortunately lost.   

 

I was informed by my Parliamentarian that it was proper for the nominating committee to create two ballots with one having the name of the anticipated candidate who had been campaigning since the nominating committee was informed.

 

The vote to close nominations requires a 2/3 vote.  A vote to (re)open them requires only a majority.

 

But there was nothing so improper as to void any of the actions taken.  All is well.

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Guest Finnese Woods

I did in fact forget to state that there was in fact blank spaces left on the actual ballots for write ins therefore it appears that everything did in fact end up properly however the number of votes that we thought we needed for the various motions to pass was inaccurate but since we ended up with the proper result it was absolutely fine. 

 

Thanks

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