Nominations during election

[Guest Club Member]

During our clubs election a member sent in his nomination before the deadline for Vice President along with his acceptance of the nomination (which is required per our bylaws).  He was vetted and his nomination was accepted.  The member then sent in another nomination at a later date for the President office.  At the bottom of the new nomination, he said please remove my nomination for Vice President.  His 1st nomination was withdrawn and he was then vetted for the President position.  He was found not eligible for the President position.  The election committee said he was not eligible to run for the Vice president position because nominations had closed and he did not re activate his first nomination before the deadline.  The nominee says since he was not eligible for President he should have then be re instated as a nominee for Vice President.  The election committee found he was not eligible because his first nomination had to be withdrawn first since he could not run for 2 offices at the same time.  

The committee believes that in order to be vetted for the second position, he had to withdraw the first nomination because he could not accept 2 nominations.  The withdrawal for the first nomination was noted on the application for the second nomination.  His second nomination was not accepted because it only had the application and not the acceptance which is required per our bylaws.  Further, he sent the application the day before the deadline.  It was postmarked before the deadline so it was considered, however he did not include his acceptance before the deadline.  The acceptance for the second nomination was received a day after nominations closed.  The election committee said his application was incomplete after waiting to see if the acceptance would be postmarked before the deadline.  It was not.  

We are at a stalemate.  The election committee feels they had to accept the withdrawal first before completely Vetting the nominee for the second position.  The nominee says his Vice President nomination should not have been withdrawn if he was found not eligible for the President position.  Comments please 

[J. J.]

Someone may run for two or more positions at the same time, unless the bylaws say otherwise (p. 440, ll. 3-17).

 

[Atul Kapur]

As Mr. J. says, you are not following RONR here, as RONR has no prohibition on running for 2 positions in the same election. So the rules that are relevant are those in your bylaws and/or your special rules of order.

We cannot interpret those for you, only your organization can do that. It sounds like this requires an interpretation of some details (does the nomination for VP have to be withdrawn in order to vet the nomination for president or is the nomination for president only official after it has been vetted?). If you are holding a meeting, then the thwarted nominee can raise a Point of Order. Do your bylaws have a mechanism for challenging decisions of the election committee?

[Guest Club Member]

Thank you for your response.  The nominee asked for his name to be withdrawn from the first position on his application for the second position.  Even if he planned on running for 3 positions, at what point would the withdrawal be considered in effect?

 

 

[Atul Kapur]

Good question for your group to interpret your rules and answer. As I recall, other threads on this forum don't even recognize a person's right to decline a nomination so you are definitely on your own on this one.

(To be clear, the member has a right to decline an office if they are elected to one, but not the nomination itself).

[Guest Club Member]

Our bylaws state:  . The Committee will vet out the nominees and confirm that they wish to run for the position

[Atul Kapur]

Not much to go on.

Again, one of the rules in RONR is that "Each society decides for itself the meaning of its bylaws" (11th ed., p. 588, line 25).

If you find that this is a very contentious issue, you may want to consider hiring a professional parliamentarian to assist you (but, to reinforce, in the end the decision belongs to your organization). You can obtain referrals from the American Institute of Parliamentarians or the National Association of Parliamentarians.