Issue involving simple majority voting

[Guest Guy]

Hello,

At a recent committee meeting we voted on an item and the result was 3 for 2 against.  The committee is a total of 6 including the chair who votes on tie breakers.  The bylaws require a simple majority vote to pass.  In this situation we did not have a simple majority.  What action do we take?  A quorum is 1/2 the committee plus one (3+1).

 

Thanks.

[Josh Martin]

11 minutes ago, Guest Guy said:

At a recent committee meeting we voted on an item and the result was 3 for 2 against.  The committee is a total of 6 including the chair who votes on tie breakers.  The bylaws require a simple majority vote to pass.  In this situation we did not have a simple majority.  What action do we take?  A quorum is 1/2 the committee plus one (3+1).

So far as RONR is concerned, you did have a "simple majority" - that is, a majority of the members present and voting. Three is a majority of five. So the motion should have been declared adopted, although if the chair erroneously declared the motion defeated, it is too late to correct that error.

Furthermore, it is not correct that the chair can only vote to break a tie unless your rules so provide. Under RONR, the chair of a committee should feel free to vote in all cases, and even if it was not a committee, the rule is a bit more complicated than that. The chair can actually vote any time his vote would affect the result, which applies to more situations than simply voting to break a tie. In this situation, for instance, a chair could vote to create a tie in order to defeat the motion.

I don't know how to answer your question of "What action do we take?" I suppose that depends on what the chair declared in regards to the motion being adopted or defeated and also depends on what you want to do.

Edited August 28, 2020 at 09:08 PM by Josh Martin

[Atul Kapur]

4 minutes ago, Josh Martin said:

although if the chair erroneously declared the motion defeated, it is too late to correct that error.

 

5 minutes ago, Josh Martin said:

I don't know how to answer your question of "What action do we take?"

First, the error that it is too late to correct is the chair's ruling that the 3-2 vote defeated the motion.

If that is what happened, there is no restriction on introducing the motion again at a future meeting. This is the same as with any other motion that is defeated.