voting proceedure with 4 directors

[Guest farmer]

How does the board vote when there are only 4 members?

[Bruce Lages]

I imagine the same way they would with more members or fewer members. More yes votes than no votes - regardless of how many of the members cast a vote - constitutes a majority vote. At least twice as many yes votes as no votes - regardless of how many members cast a votes - constitutes a 2/3 vote. And, perhaps what you're really concerned about - a tie vote defeats a motion, since there are not more yes votes than no votes, while a tie vote does not elect anyone,which requires repeated rounds of balloting until someone gets a majority vote.

Was there something else that you were asking about?

[Guest farmer]

That answers the question.  An additional member must be placed on the board. There could be many tie votes until a new member is found.  Thanks.

[Gary Novosielski]

6 minutes ago, Guest farmer said:

That answers the question.  An additional member must be placed on the board. There could be many tie votes until a new member is found.  Thanks.

Motions can fail for lack of a majority whether there is an odd or even number of board members.  It's not as significant as many people think.

Edited March 30, 2020 at 06:39 PM by Gary Novosielski

[Bruce Lages]

7 hours ago, Guest farmer said:

That answers the question.  An additional member must be placed on the board. There could be many tie votes until a new member is found.  Thanks.

Yes, but unless those tie votes are all for an election for some office, your four member board will have made a decision in each case. As I said above, a tie vote defeats a motion because it does not constitute a majority vote in favor of the motion. None of those votes will have paralyzed the board into a state of non-action that will require the presence of a new member to resolve.

[Weldon Merritt]

55 minutes ago, Bruce Lages said:

Yes, but unless those tie votes are all for an election for some office, your four member board will have made a decision in each case. As I said above, a tie vote defeats a motion because it does not constitute a majority vote in favor of the motion. None of those votes will have paralyzed the board into a state of non-action that will require the presence of a new member to resolve.

And even with an odd number of members, a tie is still possible. A member might be absent, or abstain.

[Joshua Katz]

9 hours ago, Guest farmer said:

An additional member must be placed on the board.

I don't see why.

On a semi-related note, I think we should have an even number of Justices on the Supreme Court.