Nominee Overlooked After Ballot Sent Out

[Guest Kayla Green]

I work for a COA.  Ballots have gone out for our annual meeting to elect a new board member.  It was brought to our attention that we had missed a nomination ( and acceptance of ) by a member of our community.  We resent a "corrected" ballot, but the question has now been raised that since a ballot had already been sent, this may be illegal.  I have looked thru the RNOR, but cannot find a definitive answer.  

Help?

[Josh Martin]

Just now, Guest Kayla Green said:

I work for a COA.  Ballots have gone out for our annual meeting to elect a new board member.  It was brought to our attention that we had missed a nomination ( and acceptance of ) by a member of our community.  We resent a "corrected" ballot, but the question has now been raised that since a ballot had already been sent, this may be illegal.  I have looked thru the RNOR, but cannot find a definitive answer.  

In my view, no rule in RONR requires that a "corrected" ballot be sent in the circumstances you describe, but no rule in RONR prohibits it either. Your society's own rules may weigh in on this matter.

I would suggest that (assuming there is no conflict with the society's rules) either original ballots or "corrected" ballots should be accepted as valid by the tellers' committee.

[Guest Kayla Green]

Thank you so much for your answer.  

[Guest Kayla Green]

Thank you so much for your reply, Josh.  

[Rob Elsman]

It also might be worthwhile for the association to conduct an investigation into how and by whom it happened that a nomination was "missed" with an eye toward appropriate disciplinary proceedings against those responsible.  See RONR (12th ed.) Chapter XX.

[J. J.]

I would assume that there is no prohibition on write-in votes in the bylaws.  Is that assumption accurate?

[Richard Brown]

8 hours ago, Josh Martin said:

In my view, no rule in RONR requires that a "corrected" ballot be sent in the circumstances you describe, but no rule in RONR prohibits it either. Your society's own rules may weigh in on this matter.

I would suggest that (assuming there is no conflict with the society's rules) either ballots or "corrected" ballots should be accepted as valid by the tellers' committee.

I am uncomfortable with saying there is no need to send out a corrected ballot.  As Mr. Martin said, I'm not aware of a rule in RONR either way, but there seems to be something definitely improper and fundamentally wrong with permitting members to vote using the  first ballot which improperly omitted the name of a properly nominated candidate whose name is supposed to be on the ballot.  That is especially so if the society's rules or custom provide that the names of all nominated candidates  shall be pre-printed on the ballot. Giving the benefit of the doubt, it was likely an oversight in this case, but in the next case the Secretary might well take it upon himself to "inadvertently" leave off the name of a candidate he dislikes.   I haven't taken the time to research it, but I wonder if this might  constitute a breach of the sort that would invalidate the election... or at least permit it to be invalidated.   I don't view the fact that the members have the right to write in the name of the omitted candidate as being a sufficient  remedy, especially if it is a mail ballot.  If the voting is taking place at an in-person meeting where appropriate announcements can be made, the situation might be different.