Voting Results

[Guest Mona]

Our nonprofit assembly had a vote by ballot - yes or no with no requirement above majority; voting took place; ballots tallied; and vote announced that the ayes have by a two-third vote. Now, there are a couple members of the assembly that would like to know the exact yes count and no count of the vote. Are we required to publish those counts or can we stick with by majority or two-thirds language?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

The counts should be announced and recorded in the minutes.

[Atul Kapur]

To reinforce HHH's point, see page 418 of RONR 11th ed., which shows the format of a tellers' report in the case of balloting on a motion. It includes the numbers voting for and against the motion. Further down, it states, "The tellers’ report is entered in full in the minutes, becoming a part of the official records of the organization. Under no circumstances should this be omitted in an election or in a vote on a critical motion out of a mistaken deference to the feelings of unsuccessful candidates or members of the
losing side."

[Gary Novosielski]

6 hours ago, Guest Mona said:

Our nonprofit assembly had a vote by ballot - yes or no with no requirement above majority; voting took place; ballots tallied; and vote announced that the ayes have by a two-third vote. Now, there are a couple members of the assembly that would like to know the exact yes count and no count of the vote. Are we required to publish those counts or can we stick with by majority or two-thirds language?

On a voice vote or rising (uncounted) vote, no count was taken, so none is announced.  But as this was a ballot vote then, as with any counted vote, the vote counts must be announced, and recorded in the minutes.  If the threshold for passage was a majority, there was no point in announcing that it passed by two-thirds, and potentially misleading, as it suggests that a two-thirds vote was the requirement.

But you are not required to "publish" anything, according to RONR.