Ballot requires the voters to pick a certain number of candidates

[Guest Phil R.]

Our organization is performing a mail ballot election for an executive committee. We have 12 members on the ballot and need to fill 5 positions.

Our election committee decided to require that the voters must pick at least 5 names from the list of 12 candidates or the vote will be considered null and voided.

In other words can the guidelines for for this election stipulate that if you vote for more than 5, or less than 5, the ballot will be considered null and voided?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

No.

[George Mervosh]

Agreeing with Mr. Huynh, see RONR (12th ed.), 45:3

[Dan Honemann]

49 minutes ago, Guest Phil R. said:

Our organization is performing a mail ballot election for an executive committee. We have 12 members on the ballot and need to fill 5 positions.

Our election committee decided to require that the voters must pick at least 5 names from the list of 12 candidates or the vote will be considered null and voided.

In other words can the guidelines for for this election stipulate that if you vote for more than 5, or less than 5, the ballot will be considered null and voided?

As previously indicated by others, the answer to this question is a resounding NO unless your bylaws expressly confer such an extraordinary power on your election committee. 

[Josh Martin]

1 hour ago, Guest Phil R. said:

Our organization is performing a mail ballot election for an executive committee. We have 12 members on the ballot and need to fill 5 positions.

Our election committee decided to require that the voters must pick at least 5 names from the list of 12 candidates or the vote will be considered null and voided.

In other words can the guidelines for for this election stipulate that if you vote for more than 5, or less than 5, the ballot will be considered null and voided?

If five positions need to be filled, a vote for more than five should be counted as an illegal vote, although it is not quite correct so say such a vote is "null and void." Illegal votes are not credited to any candidate, but are included in the total number of votes cast.

A vote for less than five should be counted as a valid vote for the candidate(s) the member voted for.

The ballot instructions should have indicated that members may vote for up to five candidates.

"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

"In an election of members of a board or committee in which votes are cast in one section of the ballot for multiple positions on the board or committee, every ballot with a vote in that section for one or more candidates is counted as one vote cast, and a candidate must receive a majority of the total of such votes to be elected." RONR (12th ed.) 46:33

"All ballots that indicate a preference—provided they have been cast by persons entitled to vote—are taken into account in determining the number of votes cast for purposes of computing the majority. Each such ballot is credited to the voter’s preferred candidate or choice if the meaning of the ballot is clear and the choice is valid. Unintelligible ballots or ballots cast for an unidentifiable or ineligible candidate are treated instead as illegal votes—that is, they are counted as votes cast but are not credited to any candidate or choice. Similarly, a ballot that contains votes for too many candidates for a given office is counted as one illegal vote cast for that office, because it is not possible for the tellers to determine which candidate(s) the voter prefers." RONR (12th ed.) 45:32

[Gary Novosielski]

14 hours ago, Guest Phil R. said:

Our organization is performing a mail ballot election for an executive committee. We have 12 members on the ballot and need to fill 5 positions.

Our election committee decided to require that the voters must pick at least 5 names from the list of 12 candidates or the vote will be considered null and voided.

In other words can the guidelines for for this election stipulate that if you vote for more than 5, or less than 5, the ballot will be considered null and voided?

The election committee has no such power.  Voters have the right to abstain, partially or totally. Only the bylaws could change that rule, not some out-of-control committee with delusions of grandeur.