Calling in votes for absent members

[Guest Paul Adams]

In our condo Corp meeting we were about to vote on a motion that one member wanted to defeat. She said I can just call two absent members who will vote against the motion.  Is this permitted without proxy?  Quorum was already established at the start of the meeting.

[Atul Kapur]

"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 the time the vote is taken in a regular or properly called meeting.... Exceptions to this rules must be expressly stated in the bylaws." (RONR 11th ed., p. 423, lines 17-23)

[Richard Brown]

Agreeing with Dr. Kapur, I will add that calling absent members for a vote does not magically cause them to be "present" as is required in the absence of a bylaw provision permitting participation and voting by telephone.  It is expressly prohibited by RONR unless permitted in the bylaws or controlling state law.

[Josh Martin]

21 hours ago, Guest Paul Adams said:

In our condo Corp meeting we were about to vote on a motion that one member wanted to defeat. She said I can just call two absent members who will vote against the motion.  Is this permitted without proxy?  Quorum was already established at the start of the meeting.

It is not permitted with or without proxy, unless your bylaws or applicable law provide otherwise.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 12/15/2019 at 2:53 PM, Guest Paul Adams said:

In our condo Corp meeting we were about to vote on a motion that one member wanted to defeat. She said I can just call two absent members who will vote against the motion.  Is this permitted without proxy?  Quorum was already established at the start of the meeting.

No, this is expressly forbidden.  For that matter, so are proxies.

Any exceptions would have to be provided for in your bylaws.