Reporting Abstentions

[Guest John Thomas]

My understanding is that abstentions are recorded but reported/counted as going with the majority, yay or nay.  Is this correct?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

See FAQ #6.

[Josh Martin]

51 minutes ago, Guest John Thomas said:

My understanding is that abstentions are recorded but reported/counted as going with the majority, yay or nay.  Is this correct?

No, I do not think this is a correct understanding. Counting and recording are also two separate issues, so let's handle them separately.

Generally speaking, abstentions are not counted at all and they ordinarily have no effect on the result. In the usual case, a proportion (usually a majority) of the members present and voting is required for adoption. For example, if four members vote in the affirmative and three vote in the negative, that is a majority vote. There is no need to even call for the abstentions, let alone to count them.

In certain unusual cases, a vote is based upon a proportion of the members present or of the total membership. In these instances, an abstention essentially has the same effect as a vote in the negative, but it still is not necessary to call for or to count the number of abstentions. Instead, the number of total members present (or the total membership) is determined prior to the vote, the votes in the affirmative are counted, and by comparing these numbers it can be determined if the motion is adopted.

As for the issue of how votes or abstentions are recorded, it should be noted that in the ordinary case, all that is recorded is the fact that the motion is adopted or lost. Even in the case that some form of counted vote has been ordered, only the number of votes on each side are recorded, not the number of abstentions.

The only circumstance in which abstentions are recorded is in the case of a roll call vote. This is sometimes used in bodies which are responsible to an interested constituency, and in this situation the vote of each individual member is recorded. Abstentions are recorded in this case, and they are recorded as abstentions.

Edited November 18, 2020 at 11:01 PM by Josh Martin