Per Capita Vote

[Guest NICOLE]

If delegates vote down a motion, can the motion be reintroduced and ask for a per capita vote? Does this make it a new motion?

[Richard Brown]

What do you mean by a "per-capita vote"? That term is not used even once in RONR and I don't think I have seen it in any other book on parliamentary procedure.

 I will note that page 343 of RONR states that "motions are improper when they present practically the same question as a motion previously decided at the same session". That means that if a motion is defeated at one session, it is improper to reintroduce essentially the same motion again at the same session.

Edited August 6, 2019 at 03:54 AM by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph

[jstackpo]

A guess:  "per capita" means a "roll-call" vote.  The answer is still no, however.

[Josh Martin]

13 hours ago, Guest NICOLE said:

If delegates vote down a motion, can the motion be reintroduced and ask for a per capita vote? Does this make it a new motion?

Assuming that this does in fact mean a roll call vote, a member could move that the vote be retaken by roll call, provided the member does this promptly. After the assembly has moved on to other business, it would be too late. After that time, a member who voted on the prevailing side (that is, a member who voted against the motion) could move to Reconsider, and then (assuming that motion is adopted) move for a roll call vote. The motion may not simply be reintroduced. The motion itself (not merely the method of voting) must be different in order to make it a new motion. 

It should also be noted that unless the assembly’s rules provide otherwise, a motion for a roll call vote requires a majority vote for adoption.

It may be helpful, however, if you could explain what a “per capita” vote is.

Edited August 6, 2019 at 04:25 PM by Josh Martin

[Gary Novosielski]

From what little I know of the subject (i.e., very), the term per-capita voting is used to distinguish it from per-share voting.  In other words a count of heads rather than shares.  

As this OQ seems to involve delegates, possibly with different voting strengths arising from the size of their constituency, a per-capita vote would be a one-delegate-one-vote tally, without respect to any weighted vote considerations.  

This is a wild guess, of course, but if it should happen to be right, I would say that the answer to the OQ is No.  The proper method of voting on a given issue is not something that can be switched midstream because someone didn't like the outcome.