When voting on a new slate of Officers and Directors

[Guest Sue Hogan]

We divide our Board into 3 groups who serve for 3 years and terms expire for 1/3 of the Board each year. When voting on a new slate, should we be voting only for the officers and new Board members?  or for the entire slate each year. 

[Atul Kapur]

if i understand your question correctly, you should only be voting for those positions where the incumbent's term has ended.  

[Richard Brown]

I agree with Dr. Kapur.  If I understand correctly, only three directors, and possibly some officers, have terms that are expiring this year.  Those are the only positions you should be voting on and the only positions that should be on the ballot.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 1/7/2023 at 4:23 PM, Guest Sue Hogan said:

We divide our Board into 3 groups who serve for 3 years and terms expire for 1/3 of the Board each year. When voting on a new slate, should we be voting only for the officers and new Board members?  or for the entire slate each year. 

You should not be voting for a "slate" at all, if the rules in RONR apply.  If there are three seats to be filled, you are electing three people (plus any other offices that are elected directly by the membership).   People who have  only partially completed three-year terms would not be up for election until their terms expire.

[1Angela]

On 1/7/2023 at 7:53 PM, Gary Novosielski said:

You should not be voting for a "slate" at all, if the rules in RONR apply.  If there are three seats to be filled, you are electing three people (plus any other offices that are elected directly by the membership).   People who have  only partially completed three-year terms would not be up for election until their terms expire

Can you please elaborate?  I am in an organization that has in the past voted for a slate of candidates instead of electing them individually. Is it technically wrong?     What would an objection to the motion look like?  

[Gary Novosielski]

On 1/8/2023 at 7:47 PM, G.Lisa said:

Can you please elaborate?  I am in an organization that has in the past voted for a slate of candidates instead of electing them individually. Is it technically wrong?     What would an objection to the motion look like?  

Well, you'll need to check your bylaws carefully to see if there is really some rule there that supports the idea of voting for an entire slate of candidates at once.  Such a rule would supersede the ones in RONR concerning nominations and elections, as set forth in RONR 12th ed. §46.  That section covers the different methods of nomination and election.

But if the rules in RONR apply, nomination process, by whatever method, proposes the names of one or more individuals as candidates for office. So yes, voting Yes or No on an entire slate of candidates is technically wrong. (The word "slate" does not appear in RONR at all.)

A better answer would require knowing how your nomination process (and to an extent, how your election) is currently carried out.  One common way that organizations slip into the habit of voting for a slate occurs when nominations are proposed by a Nominating Committee.  If the committee is reasonably good at selecting qualified candidates, people begin to accept the committees report as a done deal, and refer to its report as a "slate".  They may begin to ignore the rule in RONR that says that after the Nominating Committee report is read, and--if that occurs before the election meeting--again at the actual election meeting, the chair must open the floor for additional nominations for any office. (See 46:18)  And if the bylaws require a ballot vote, then voters are entitled to write in the names of unnominated candidates.  

An objection would be in the form of a Point of Order (§23) at the point when a rule is being broken, but exactly what that looks like would depend on your bylaws, on what your current customs are, and how close (or far) they are from the applicable rules. If you don't have a copy of The Book, this would be the perfect time to do a little shopping.  You're looking for:

• Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 12th edition; and optionally,
• Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised in Brief, 3rd edition.

The latter is a good starting point if you're new to parliamentary procedure.

Stay in touch.