Ballot Denied to Member

[Guest Myrna]

I went to my organizations annual meeting to vote on our new officers. I signed in and was immediately leaving out after I voted. I wasn’t interested in who might have been nominated from the floor. The president told me that I had to stay until the official voting process took place. There’s nothing in our bylaws that speak to ballot distribution.

Is there anything in Roberts Rules that address ballot distribution? Was the president within her rights to deny me a ballot?
 

 

 

 

[Atul Kapur]

" after nominations have been closed, voting for that office takes place, or nominations for the next officer called for by the chair" if voting for all positions takes place at the same time. In either case, voting only occurs after the nominations have been closed. (RONR 11th ed., p. 436, lines 24-26)

So, even if the ballots had been distributed, you wouldn't have been able to cast yours immediately and just leave.

[Richard Brown]

2 hours ago, Guest Myrna said:

I went to my organizations annual meeting to vote on our new officers. I signed in and was immediately leaving out after I voted.

I don't understand.  Were you actually in the process of leaving or were you PLANNING on leaving after you voted?  Had you received a ballot?  Had you actually voted?

I'm assuming that you were PLANNING on leaving after you voted, but the president would not let you vote until after nominations from the floor were closed.  If that is what happened, then i agree with the response above by Dr. Kapur.

Actually, I probably agree with him regardless of your answers to my questions, but I'm still curious as to just exactly what happened. RONR is pretty clear that voting takes place only after nominations have been closed.

 

[jstackpo]

3 hours ago, Richard Brown said:

RONR is pretty clear that voting takes place only after nominations have been closed.

And that the ability to cast your vote cannot be transferred to someone else, i.e. given to a proxy (which is what handing you ballot to someone else to actually cast), unless such is authorized in the bylaws

[Josh Martin]

9 hours ago, Guest Myrna said:

I went to my organizations annual meeting to vote on our new officers. I signed in and was immediately leaving out after I voted. I wasn’t interested in who might have been nominated from the floor. The president told me that I had to stay until the official voting process took place. There’s nothing in our bylaws that speak to ballot distribution.

Is there anything in Roberts Rules that address ballot distribution? Was the president within her rights to deny me a ballot?

Yes, the President was absolutely correct to deny your request to vote prior to the vote actually happening. You can’t vote in advance.

“It is a fundamental principle of parliamentary law that the right to vote is limited to the members of an organization who are actually present at the time the vote is taken in a regular or properly called meeting” (RONR, 11th ed., pg. 423)

[Gary Novosielski]

21 hours ago, Guest Myrna said:

I went to my organizations annual meeting to vote on our new officers. I signed in and was immediately leaving out after I voted. I wasn’t interested in who might have been nominated from the floor. The president told me that I had to stay until the official voting process took place. There’s nothing in our bylaws that speak to ballot distribution.

Is there anything in Roberts Rules that address ballot distribution? Was the president within her rights to deny me a ballot?

Yes, the president was quite correct.  You can't vote unless you are present.  And you can't vote before voting begins.