Zoom polling

[Angie N]

Hello,

Help! In zoom polling, if 50% says yes and 49% says no. Does this motion pass? 

 

[Joshua Katz]

I assume that poll is over everyone in the room, and that only those who are allowed to vote are responding to the poll, and that this form of voting is authorized by the bylaws. If you further assume that the motion requires a majority vote to pass, as is often the case in RONR, then yes, it will pass, as there are more in favor than against. If the required vote is different, though, that may impact the answer.

[Angie N]

Ok thank you! I thought the percentage had to also be greater than 50%. 

[Bruce Lages]

Since a majority vote will be achieved with more yes votes than no votes, it will be much easier if you just count the responses themselves rather than look at percentages. Does the zoom poll feature automatically report in percentages, instead of the number of each response?

[Angie N]

3 minutes ago, Bruce Lages said:

Since a majority vote will be achieved with more yes votes than no votes, it will be much easier if you just count the responses themselves rather than look at percentages. Does the zoom poll feature automatically report in percentages, instead of the number of each response?

It was shown as percentage. I'm not familiar with the polling to answer if numbers are an option. 

[Richard Brown]

10 minutes ago, Angie N said:

It was shown as percentage. I'm not familiar with the polling to answer if numbers are an option. 

What were the other one percent? 

If it is an ordinary motion, and unless your rules provide to the contrary, a majority vote means simply more yes votes than no votes. Or, stated differently, more than half of the votes actually cast, ignoring abstentions. Were there any other options on the ballot, or was it strictly yes or no?  Also, was this vote on a motion or was it an election?

[Angie N]

15 minutes ago, Richard Brown said:

What were the other one percent? 

If it is an ordinary motion, and unless your rules provide to the contrary, a majority vote means simply more yes votes than no votes. Or, stated differently, more than half of the votes actually cast, ignoring abstentions. Were there any other options on the ballot, or was it strictly yes or no?  Also, was this vote on a motion or was it an election?

The poll only showed yes and no. No other options to vote either. It was a vote on a motion.

So where does the more than half apply? I didn't understand that to be 50% but more than 50%.

 

[Atul Kapur]

I think this is a quirk in the way that Zoom rounds percentages. I believe that there is a way for Zoom to give the raw numbers, at least to the host if not to everybody. That would solve the problem of actually figuring out whether there were more votes in favour versus opposed.

So the above answers are noting that the 50% in favour is more than the 49% opposed, and interpreting that as indicating there were more yes votes than no votes.

[Angie N]

1 hour ago, Atul Kapur said:

I think this is a quirk in the way that Zoom rounds percentages. I believe that there is a way for Zoom to give the raw numbers, at least to the host if not to everybody. That would solve the problem of actually figuring out whether there were more votes in favour versus opposed.

So the above answers are noting that the 50% in favour is more than the 49% opposed, and interpreting that as indicating there were more yes votes than no votes.

Ok thank you! 

[Gary Novosielski]

4 hours ago, Angie N said:

Ok thank you! I thought the percentage had to also be greater than 50%. 

Yes, but it depends how the percentage is calculated.  These numbers add up to only 99%.  Presumably the other 1% did not vote.  But in RONR, abstentions are not counted at all, so the percentages cannot be relied on.

If you got a vote of 20% in favor and 19% against, that would still pass, since more than fifty percent of those voting approved of the motion.

[Shmuel Gerber]

4 hours ago, Atul Kapur said:

I think this is a quirk in the way that Zoom rounds percentages. I believe that there is a way for Zoom to give the raw numbers, at least to the host if not to everybody. That would solve the problem of actually figuring out whether there were more votes in favour versus opposed.

So the above answers are noting that the 50% in favour is more than the 49% opposed, and interpreting that as indicating there were more yes votes than no votes.

 

20 minutes ago, Gary Novosielski said:

Yes, but it depends how the percentage is calculated.  These numbers add up to only 99%.  Presumably the other 1% did not vote.  But in RONR, abstentions are not counted at all, so the percentages cannot be relied on.

If you got a vote of 20% in favor and 19% against, that would still pass, since more than fifty percent of those voting approved of the motion.

I think Dr. Kapur is correct about the rounding. Zoom provides the raw numbers (number of attendees, number of votes cast, number of votes for each choice) to the hosts & co-hosts only; everyone else sees only percentages, but it is percentages of those who voted. 

[Joshua Katz]

I said there was a majority in favor because I assumed 1% abstained.

[Gary Novosielski]

3 hours ago, Joshua Katz said:

I said there was a majority in favor because I assumed 1% abstained.

As did I, but I don't think it matters much as long as it can be determined which side prevailed.  If it's a straight percentage of the votes, it should add up to 100%, but they might take care not to allow a close vote to round to 50-50 unless it is an actual tie.  That would be a desirable feature, if they're not going to show you the actual vote count.