Guest PTO Mom Posted May 4, 2018 at 03:11 AM Report Share Posted May 4, 2018 at 03:11 AM Question... We had elections for our board positions. The only seat open was for secretary. There were 4 names on the ballot. One received no votes, then the votes went 6, 5, and 4. The one with 6 votes won. After the votes were announced, the elected person decided to turn down the position. Roberts Rules say that if the meeting is adjourned then we must hold another election but the meeting want adjourned. Do we then proceed to the next person with the most votes (person who received 5 votes) or do we vote all over again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Brown Posted May 4, 2018 at 03:31 AM Report Share Posted May 4, 2018 at 03:31 AM You vote again. btw, unless your bylaws say otherwise, it takes a majority vote to win, not a plurality. A majority is more than half the votes cast. A plurality is simply more votes than anyone else received. Per RONR, unless your bylaws say otherwise, a plurality never elects anybody. it takes a majority. So, you keep voting until someone actually receives a majority... more votes than all the other candidates combined. And you don't drop any names (such as the person with the lowest vote total) with succeeding ballots. All names stay on the ballot unless you have a rule to the contrary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Novosielski Posted May 4, 2018 at 04:41 PM Report Share Posted May 4, 2018 at 04:41 PM 13 hours ago, Guest PTO Mom said: Question... We had elections for our board positions. The only seat open was for secretary. There were 4 names on the ballot. One received no votes, then the votes went 6, 5, and 4. The one with 6 votes won. After the votes were announced, the elected person decided to turn down the position. Roberts Rules say that if the meeting is adjourned then we must hold another election but the meeting want adjourned. Do we then proceed to the next person with the most votes (person who received 5 votes) or do we vote all over again? Actually, unless your bylaws provide for plurality voting, the one with 6 votes did not win. To achieve a majority, one must have more votes than all the other candidates combined. While the top candidate got 6 votes, the other candidates got 9, so you should have held a second ballot, with all candidates still on it, and continued to vote until someone got a majority. At this point, if someone was incorrectly (or even correctly) announced as the winner and then withdrew, the remedy is the same: continue to vote (with the withdrawn candidate's name removed) until someone gets a majority. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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