Secret ballot

[Guest Candace Kramer]

Can a club officially following Roberts rules of Order ever have a secret ballot by the board? And if so, does the result of that secret ballot have to be maintained somewhere? 

[Richard Brown]

Unless prohibited by your bylaws or by state law, your board may vote by secret ballot. A secret ballot may be ordered by unanimous consent or by majority vote. RONR provides that, unless there is a rule or motion to the contrary, ballots should be securely maintained by the secretary until the time period for ordering a recount has expired, usually  the next meeting.  See RONR pages 418-419 regarding ballot retention.

Or how to order a vote by ballot, see pages 283-285 and also page 412.

Edited October 27, 2018 at 02:27 AM by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph

[Chris Harrison]

9 minutes ago, Guest Candace Kramer said:

Can a club officially following Roberts rules of Order ever have a secret ballot by the board?

Since RONR lists ballot voting as one of the forms of voting (RONR p. 412) I'd say the answer is yes.  However, any applicable laws/rules governing the club may say otherwise. 

Quote

And if so, does the result of that secret ballot have to be maintained somewhere? 

The minutes would reflect the outcome of the vote with the voting totals (RONR p. 418).

Edited October 27, 2018 at 02:26 AM by Chris Harrison

[Gary Novosielski]

On 10/26/2018 at 10:16 PM, Guest Candace Kramer said:

Can a club officially following Roberts rules of Order ever have a secret ballot by the board? And if so, does the result of that secret ballot have to be maintained somewhere? 

Of course the result would be contained in the minutes.  A secret ballot means that the votes of individual members is secret.  If the board votes by secret ballot to paint the front door red, people are going to notice when it turns red, so that would be hard to keep secret.