Guest mcmasterkaren3@gmail.com Posted October 13, 2020 at 07:58 PM Report Share Posted October 13, 2020 at 07:58 PM We are a small society that are required to follow Robert's Rules of Order. This year we chose to implement electronic voting for Officers and Directors. Are we required to have our electronic ballots able to accept under voting? Can you point me to the section in RRO that would answer this question? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Brown Posted October 13, 2020 at 08:34 PM Report Share Posted October 13, 2020 at 08:34 PM 33 minutes ago, Guest mcmasterkaren3@gmail.com said: We are a small society that are required to follow Robert's Rules of Order. This year we chose to implement electronic voting for Officers and Directors. Are we required to have our electronic ballots able to accept under voting? Can you point me to the section in RRO that would answer this question? If you are going to institute electronica meetings and/or electronica voting, you may well have to adopt your own rules pertaining to same. However, per the rules in RONR, when a number of people are being elected such as to a Board of Directors, it is not necessary to vote for the full number of positions being filled. I do not have RONR in front of me and cannot give you a citation at the moment. I will look for one later, but in the meantime I imagine someone else will provide a citation If I don’t get back to it soon enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Martin Posted October 13, 2020 at 08:55 PM Report Share Posted October 13, 2020 at 08:55 PM 49 minutes ago, Guest mcmasterkaren3@gmail.com said: We are a small society that are required to follow Robert's Rules of Order. This year we chose to implement electronic voting for Officers and Directors. Are we required to have our electronic ballots able to accept under voting? Can you point me to the section in RRO that would answer this question? It should first be noted that absentee voting must be authorized in the bylaws in order to be used. Setting that aside, yes, under voting is permitted. "Although it is the duty of every member who has an opinion on a question to express it by his vote, he can abstain, since he cannot be compelled to vote. By the same token, when an office or position is to be filled by a number of members, as in the case of a committee, or positions on a board, a member may partially abstain by voting for less than all of those for whom he is entitled to vote." RONR (12th ed.) 45:3 I would note that, even if the software does not allow for this, there are likely workarounds which could be used, such as by adding several "candidates" called "Abstain1," "Abstain2," and so forth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Elsman Posted October 13, 2020 at 10:07 PM Report Share Posted October 13, 2020 at 10:07 PM Mr. Martin has the correct citation. For reasons I will skip, I suspect our original poster is writing from outside the United States. If I'm right about this, it is worth saying that local procedural laws or regulations might also address this subject and should be consulted before implementing any electronic voting method. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atul Kapur Posted October 14, 2020 at 01:28 AM Report Share Posted October 14, 2020 at 01:28 AM 3 hours ago, Rob Elsman said: I suspect our original poster is writing from outside the United States. If I'm right about this, it is worth saying that local procedural laws or regulations might also address this subject and should be consulted before implementing any electronic voting method. The Guest's chosen name also suggests to me that the OP is Canadian. However, Mr. Elsman, wouldn't your advice also apply in the United States? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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