Tie Votes & Presiding Officer

[JRod]

Our

<a href="https://www.sbcisd.net/">school district</a>

has a 7 member board. The Board President's resignation is up for a vote at a Special Board Meeting on Dec 23, 2019. It is expected to be approved. Next on the agenda is voting to appoint a board member by the board to serve until the next election.

Topic Question 1 is

1. What happens if a motion is made to appoint the replacement and the vote is a tie 3 ayes and 3 nays and no process/policy exists to break the tie?
2. Does the motion automatically die/fail and the vote continues to the next nomination on the list (if any)?
3. What happens if no nominee gets a majority vote?

Topic Question 2 is:

1. Since no school district policy exists regarding this question, Can the Superintendent (as a non-voting member of the Board) legally be appointed "Presiding Officer" during the nomination process (open and close the nominations and call for votes) for the Board President only ?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated?

JRod (new to the forum)

[Rob Elsman]

1. & 2. There ought not be a vote to elect a new president. Previous notice of the election should be given to all the board members with the call of the next meeting. When the time assigned in the established order of business for special orders has been reached, the temporary occupant of the chair should announce the election for president and open nominations.

3. If nobody receives a majority vote on the first round of voting, further rounds of voting are undertaken (no nominees are dropped unless they voluntarily withdraw) until someone receives a majority vote. In between rounds of voting, the board can, by majority vote, re-open nominations. "Write-in" votes are also allowed if voting is done by ballot.

>>------> Ask the board's attorney about the "legally" part. We don't do "legal" here.

Edited December 22, 2019 at 04:32 PM by Rob Elsman