Appreciation for 46:32n1

[Gregory Carlson]

I work a lot with political organizations where meetings are contentious and there are usually several organized and passionate opposing factions.

Increasingly, people are using the nomination process to try to improperly gain political advantage, either by trying to close nominations early, by illegally requiring notice of nominations before the meeting, by attempting to declare candidates not eligible if they don't give the arbitrary notice, or by gaining extra time in debate by having a nominated candidate use his or her entire authorized time for a nomination speech (sometimes up to ten minutes) only to conclude their speech by withdrawing from nomination and endorsing another candidate.  

In the middle of this storm, I remain grateful for the lighthouse at 46:32n1.  I have had to cite this provision numerous times to people who believe that ballots cast for non-nominated candidates are illegal and should not count towards the basis for determining a majority.  I also fondly remember the 2019 NAP Convention where 46:32n1 was cited to justify removing a candidate from the voting keypads when no candidate could acquire a majority.  If you remember, a "write-in" option was allowed for each ballot and the keypads and listed candidates were considered a nominating ballot.  Indeed, as Robert predicted, most voters then confined their votes to the remaining candidates and a candidate was able earn a majority vote.

Due to the importance of 46:32n1 and specifically its sentence requiring a bylaws provision to restrict voting, I would propose that the authorship team consider promoting 46:32n1 from footnote to main body text of RONR, perhaps combing it with 46:2 or putting it immediately thereafter.

Cheers from the arena.

Edit:  I should have posted the text.

RONR (12th ed.) 46:32n1

An organization could suspend the rules, or adopt a special rule of order, so that the nominee with the fewest votes is dropped from the list of nominees for succeeding ballots in the expectation that voters will then confine their choice to the remaining nominees.  Only a bylaws provision, however, could make the dropped nominee ineligible for election so as to render illegal any subsequent votes cast for that nominee.  (See 46:2).

Edited August 27, 2022 at 10:37 PM by Gregory Carlson

[Dan Honemann]

On 8/27/2022 at 6:16 PM, Gregory Carlson said:

Due to the importance of 46:32n1 and specifically its sentence requiring a bylaws provision to restrict voting, I would propose that the authorship team consider promoting 46:32n1 from footnote to main body text of RONR, perhaps combing it with 46:2 or putting it immediately thereafter.

Duly noted.  Thank you.

[Richard Brown]

On 8/27/2022 at 5:16 PM, Gregory Carlson said:

Due to the importance of 46:32n1 and specifically its sentence requiring a bylaws provision to restrict voting, I would propose that the authorship team consider promoting 46:32n1 from footnote to main body text of RONR, perhaps combing it with 46:2 or putting it immediately thereafter.

 

On 8/27/2022 at 6:25 PM, Dan Honemann said:

Duly noted.  Thank you.

I concur with Mr. Carlson's suggestion, especially now that more and more people are using the Kindle electronic version of RONR in which footnotes appear at the end of each chapter rather than at the bottom of the page with the relevant text.  That footnote contains very useful and important information and I would likewise like to see it included in the text rather than as a footnote.  I do, however, believe that placing it within the text of 46:32 might be more appropriate. 

[Gary Novosielski]

On 8/27/2022 at 8:14 PM, Richard Brown said:

 

I concur with Mr. Carlson's suggestion, especially now that more and more people are using the Kindle electronic version of RONR in which footnotes appear at the end of each chapter rather than at the bottom of the page with the relevant text.  That footnote contains very useful and important information and I would likewise like to see it included in the text rather than as a footnote.  I do, however, believe that placing it within the text of 46:32 might be more appropriate. 

But clicking on the footnote superscript will pop up the text of the footnote, too.