Re-vote from mistake at previous meeting.

[jenniferdestefano]

Last Board meeting we had 2 seats open.  We hade 4 candidates wanting to fill the position.  We voted on the 1st person and it was a no for them. The second was a yes. However the President did not ask/count every persons vote. it was a 6/7 and a 7/6 break down.  If the person that was overlooked had voted it would have been a deciding vote or an even split.   A 3rd person was voted in with a and 10/8 count.  We also had one Board member absent from the meeting.  At our next board meeting we will have to do a re-vote on the two that where not done correctly.  So our question would be who gets to vote this time?  Does the new board member get to vote?  Does the Board member who was absent at the last meeting get to vote? Any guidance would be very much appreciated.  Thank you

Edited March 27, 2021 at 04:10 PM by jenniferdestefano
typo

[Dan Honemann]

28 minutes ago, jenniferdestefano said:

Last Board meeting we had 2 seats open.  We hade 4 candidates wanting to fill the position.  We voted on the 1st person and it was a no for them. The second was a yes. However the President did not ask/count every persons vote. it was a 6/7 and a 7/6 break down.  If the person that was overlooked had voted it would have been a deciding vote or an even split.   A 3rd person was voted in with a and 10/8 count.  We also had one Board member absent from the meeting.  At our next board meeting we will have to do a re-vote on the two that where not done correctly.  So our question would be who gets to vote this time?  Does the new board member get to vote?  Does the Board member who was absent at the last meeting get to vote? Any guidance would be very much appreciated.  Thank you

What, exactly, do you mean when you say that "If the person that was overlooked had voted it would have been a deciding vote or an even split"? Who was this person, and how was he or she overlooked?

[jenniferdestefano]

It was a VERY long contentious meeting. The President is new and does things his own way.  As he was doing round table vote tally skipped the same person twice.  I myself questioned the counts before we started the second vote and the response was no the count are all correct. The president does not follow Roberts Rules at all.  ( it really is a major mess on so many accounts)  After the second round again I was trying to figure out why the numbers did not make sense.  I reviewing the notes and recordings the error was found.  As I said it was a 5 hour meeting and it was after midnight as this vote was going on.  In hindsight it probably should have been tabled.  However we now find ourselves in this mess.  We do have our meetings Via ZOOM because of Covid.  We have one or two people who refuse to turn on their camera's ( not the person who was overlooked hers was on and is always on) so I think this added to the confusion and the inaccurate head count by the President.  

[Dan Honemann]

How does one conduct a "round table vote tally" during a zoom meeting, and what, if anything did the person who was "skipped" say or do? When you questioned the count after the first vote was taken, did this person say anything about being skipped?

[Dan Honemann]

2 hours ago, jenniferdestefano said:

Does the new board member get to vote?  Does the Board member who was absent at the last meeting get to vote? Any guidance would be very much appreciated. 

By the way, I think the new board member gets to vote if present at your next meeting, assuming his term in office has begun, and the Board member who was absent at the last meeting gets to vote if present at your next meeting, assuming his term in office has not expired.

[jenniferdestefano]

Well As I looked back over the recordings the question asked was "Please give me the count or yes's" as in my head I noted the person who nominated as one ( she also happened to be the one skipped) I was told both by secretary and President that the "no's" had it.  And again it was a 5 hour meeting of a VERY divided board in a brand new easement assessment community. Because of PREDFTA anyone in good standing has the right to vote and run on our board.  This brought in 7 very angry people who had never been involved in our lake a seat on a board of an association they had no idea how to run.  Our meetings are disasters and it is very ugly.  The president does not follow RR and is reminded many times through the meetings of the process and yet still goes about it his own way.  We have pushed for management company's to no avail as well as mediators.  We had a free consult to which every nee board member voted against!  This just gives a little back story of how crazy it is.  In research today I found this forum and figured I would reach out for some guidance

. 

[jenniferdestefano]

The new member was voted in at the end of last meeting. He already attended 1 work session. Would anyone be able to debate that this is considered "old business"?

[Dan Honemann]

3 hours ago, jenniferdestefano said:

 We voted on the 1st person and it was a no for them. The second was a yes. However the President did not ask/count every persons vote. it was a 6/7 and a 7/6 break down.

With respect to the first person voted on, the vote of the member who was apparently denied the right to vote (I don't think that it has as yet been established that a member who was present was denied the right to vote) could not have affected the outcome of the vote. As to the second, it could have because a "no" vote would have changed the outcome. This means that a point of order concerning the validity of the vote taken on the second person voted on can be raised at your next meeting. I gather that there is no question concerning the validity of the election of the third person voted on.

"If one or more members have been denied the right to vote, or the right to attend all or part of a regular or properly called meeting during which a vote was taken while a quorum was present, a point of order concerning the action taken in denying the basic rights of the individual members can be raised so long as the decision arrived at as a result of the vote has continuing force and effect. If there is any possibility that the members’ vote(s) would have affected the outcome, then the results of the vote must be declared invalid if the point of order is sustained. If there is no such possibility, the results of the vote itself can be made invalid only if the point of order is raised immediately following the chair’s announcement of the vote."  RONR, 12th ed., 23:7 

[jenniferdestefano]

Thank you.  I don't want to even speculate that the person was denied the vote on purpose, I honestly think it was just the very late hour, the length of the meeting as well as inexperience.  I just want to make sure we do everything right and fair to both the nominated members that are caught up in this mess.  Thank you so much for your time today.