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closing ballot one meeting prior to annual elections


Guest Ken

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Our club holds it's "annual" meeting in November, with monthly meeting each month.

The current accepted practice is a nominating committee is formed to provide a slate of candidates to be announced in October. Competing nominations from the floor are allowed in October. Once the meeting concludes, the ballot is set and the membership votes in November.

There's one bit where I've seen them take a vote on a contested position, announce the winner, and have the secretary record "one vote for [winner]"

I see the way, I'm not quite following the logic in why the ballot would be set, with no additions allowed at the annual meeting, the month prior. I also don't get the "record one vote" part.

An explanation would be appreciated. Thanks!

Here's the bylaws (elsewhere RROR apply unless otherwise noted):

1.           Elections

 

Officer elections will be held at the Annual meeting. Officers will assume their elected office January 1 of the following year. Three months prior to elections, the board shall appoint a nominating committee with a minimum of three members.

The committee will be charged with finding qualified candidates to run for office.

The committee will present a ballot at the regular meeting one month prior to elections at which time the club will entertain a motion for floor nominations and to accept the ballot.

The final ballot will be published and made available to all club members by electronic media. The nominating committee will be in charge of tabulating the votes. The nominating committee will be dissolved after the election.

Elections will be done by a majority vote. Any candidate may request a recount of the votes.

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3 hours ago, Richard Brown said:

What exactly is your question?

 

2 hours ago, Guest Ken said:

Does this process make sense? Is it normal? Why close the ballot and hold the election a month later? Just seems cumbersome.

There are several rather strange, unusual, and strangely worded provisions in the portion of the bylaws which you provided.  Some conflict with RONR.

I'll  try tackling the issue of nominations here:

As to taking nominations from the floor one month and then having the elections a month later, that is not such an unusual provision, especially in large organizations and in organizations that permit voting by mail.  Many organizations permit nominations form the floor at both the meeting when the nominating committee report is presented and again at the election meeting.   However, here is a problem with your bylaws:  They do not actually say that nominations are not permitted on the day of the elections.   They say only that nominations from the floor shall be taken immediately following the presentation of the nominating committee report.

This is what RONR says on page 435 about nominations from the floor:

Call by the Chair for Further Nominations from the Floor. After the nominating committee has presented its report and before voting for the different offices takes place, the chair must call for further nominations from the floor. This is another stage of nomination and election procedure for which a number of details should be established by rule or custom of the particular organization. In many organizations, nominations from the floor are called for immediately after the presentation of the nominating committee's report—while the election is pending or earlier.

I don't interpret that provision as requiring that nominations from the floor be asked for at the election meeting, but that is the most common way of doing it and seems to be what RONR anticipates absent a bylaw or special rule of order to the contrary, based on other passages.  But, the quoted language clearly says that the floor nominations may be called for prior to the time when the election is actually pending, i.e., at the preceding meeting, as your organization does.

I do not interpret your bylaws as actually prohibiting nominations on the day of the elections, but that is a matter of bylaws interpretation and is something only your organization can do.  My own opinion is that your custom should be followed, but that a motion to re-open nominations at the election meeting would nonetheless be in order.  If a point of order is made that nominations are not permitted on election day, the chair would rule on the point and his decision could be appealed to the assembly.  The decision of the assembly on the appeal is final.  Keep checking back to see if others are of the opinion that your bylaws actually prohibit nominations on election day.

Regardless of whether additional nominations are taken on the day of the election, RONR provides that write in ballots must be permitted unless they are prohibited in the bylaws.  It is not unheard of for write in campaigns to be successful.  In fact, at least two U.S. Senators have been elected by means of write in votes!  The most recent was Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in 2010.

4 hours ago, Guest Ken said:

The committee will present a ballot at the regular meeting one month prior to elections at which  time the club will entertain a motion for floor nominations and to accept the ballot.

I do not know what that provision means. A nominating committee usually presents a list of candidates, not a ballot.  I also do not know what is meant by the phrase "to accept the ballot".  Again, it is up to your organization to interpret its own bylaws.

 

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5 hours ago, Guest Ken said:

The final ballot will be published and made available to all club members by electronic media.

This makes it sound like you are doing electronic voting, or voting by email, with the results announced at the annual meeting. Is that what you are doing?

 

Edited by Atul Kapur
Misread OP
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5 hours ago, Guest Ken said:

There's one bit where I've seen them take a vote on a contested position, announce the winner, and have the secretary record"one vote for [winner]"

Are they recording the results of the actual vote, too, or just the "one vote for the winner"? According to RONR, they should be recording the actual vote. It sounds like they may be wanting to record the result, (who won) but not the actual numbers in a misguided artempt to prevent embarrassment to the non-winners. RONR specifically says not to do that.

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27 minutes ago, Richard Brown said:

It is not unheard of for write in campaigns to be successful.  In fact, at least two U.S. Senators have been elected by means of write in votes!  The most recent was Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska in 2010.

Yes, and I know of one election in New Mexico some years ago when the sole candidate listed on the ballot came in third in the election! There was a very unusual set of circumstances, but it does show that write-in campaigns can be effective.

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jstackpo: I don't know the answers to your questions, those are the by laws the club had when I joined. I suspect they were copied from another club and modified.

Richard Brown: Thank you for the detailed response. I'll brush up on the election section before the election.

Atul Kapur The voting is done in person. Just FYI proxies are allowed by the by-laws. And yes, I believe they're recording one vote to avoid embarrassment, but if everyone hears the count then it's a moot point.

Everyone: thanks very much for your inputs and assistance!

 

 

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