Vote Necessity when only one nomination

[Guest Patricia W]

Is a vote required for an office when there is only one person nominated who has been nominated and seconded?

[Kim Goldsworthy]

Two answers:

• Where your bylaws require a ballot vote, you must have a ballot vote. Even if there is a single nominee.

• Where your bylaws do NOT require a ballot vote (and where no motion is made to require a ballot vote), then the chair may declare elected the sole nominee for an office, without a formal vote.

 

[Gary Novosielski]

And as a further note, nominations do not require a second.

[Patricia W]

Thank you for your comments.  Much appreciated.

[Patricia W]

Is it possible to cite from Roberts Rules as an answer to this question?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

See RONR 11th ed., p. 443, ll. 7-12.

[gpeastwoo]

If the lone candidate does not receive a majority of votes cast, is there a need for a new election?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

How would a lone candidate not receive a majority of votes cast?

[Kim Goldsworthy]

3 hours ago, gpeastwoo said:

If the lone candidate does not receive a majority of votes cast, is there a need for a new election?

Not a "new election."

Where the first round of balloting fails to elect anyone, the normal, natural cycle is to (a.) reopen nominations; (b.) conduct Round Two of balloting.

Rinse and repeat.

[gpeastwoo]

13 hours ago, Hieu H. Huynh said:

How would a lone candidate not receive a majority of votes cast?

I obviously had a duh moment... how true you are.

 

Tx for the wakeup... Dave

[gpeastwoo]

Let's say that the majority do not want this candidate as the president. Although there were no other candidates, many may recognize the candidate may be unsuitable for various reasons.  Unless someone steps forward the candidate can vote for himself/herself and be elected by a vote of 1 to 0. 

Is there a way for the members to vote no for the candidate to force a reopening of nominations as noted by Kim?  e.g. Can someone move to reopen nominations before the ballots are cast or counted?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

In a ballot election, the only proper way to defeat a candidate is to vote for and elect someone else.

[Thomas Ralph]

3 hours ago, gpeastwoo said:

Let's say that the majority do not want this candidate as the president. Although there were no other candidates, many may recognize the candidate may be unsuitable for various reasons.  Unless someone steps forward the candidate can vote for himself/herself and be elected by a vote of 1 to 0. 

Is there a way for the members to vote no for the candidate to force a reopening of nominations as noted by Kim?  e.g. Can someone move to reopen nominations before the ballots are cast or counted?

It is in order to move to reopen nominations before the ballot is taken, but not afterwards.

As mentioned, the only way to oppose someone in a ballot vote is to vote for somebody else, by write-in if necessary.

[Rev Ed]

3 hours ago, gpeastwoo said:

Let's say that the majority do not want this candidate as the president. Although there were no other candidates, many may recognize the candidate may be unsuitable for various reasons.  Unless someone steps forward the candidate can vote for himself/herself and be elected by a vote of 1 to 0. 

Is there a way for the members to vote no for the candidate to force a reopening of nominations as noted by Kim?  e.g. Can someone move to reopen nominations before the ballots are cast or counted?

If you do not want Candidate A elected, then nominate someone else (nominations cannot be refused, although nominations are debatable so the nominated person could state that he/she would refuse election, although he/she may think differently when he/she is actually elected.)

Also, you can nominate yourself (it's called volunteering) if necessary.  And if a ballot is required, people can 'write-in' any living person.  So, each member who does not want Candidate A to be elected could vote for themselves.  If 50 votes are cast and 26 members vote for themselves, then Candidate A would only receive 24 votes, which is not a majority of votes casts (50), despite no one else getting more than one vote.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 4/9/2016 at 8:47 PM, Hieu H. Huynh said:

How would a lone candidate not receive a majority of votes cast?

Write-ins.  Don't ask me how I know that.