Guest Cathy Guest Posted March 21, 2023 at 03:24 PM Report Share Posted March 21, 2023 at 03:24 PM Please bear with me on this...Under Roberts Rules, during a mail vote, (not at an in-person meeting) would you be able to change your vote, before the vote ends? We have a vote occurring without a meeting. It is abundantly clear that email voting is NOT permitted in our Bylaws, but the Board is not withdrawing the vote so the members are voting. There is a member who wants to change their vote while we still have five days left, and the a Board member is saying that this is not permitted under Roberts Rules to change your vote. Can you comment on this as to whether this is allowed? If it were a mail ballot vote occurring after a motion made at a meeting, would changing your vote (before the time limit of the vote) be permitted? If so, what reference would this be under? Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Novosielski Posted March 21, 2023 at 03:58 PM Report Share Posted March 21, 2023 at 03:58 PM (edited) Quote 45:8Changing One’s Vote. Except when the vote has been taken by ballot (or some other method that provides secrecy), a member has a right to change his vote up to the time the result is announced but afterward can make the change only by the unanimous consent of the assembly requested and granted, without debate, immediately following the chair’s announcement of the result of the vote (see below). It's not clear whether the vote you're talking about was a mail vote or an email vote, so I don't know if this rule applies or not, but that's the rule. If it was an email vote and your bylaws do not allow those, then the question is moot, since no matter what the vote tally was, the vote was null and void. If your bylaws allow voting by mail using secret ballots, that's quite different from voting by email, where secrecy is problematic. I can see that an argument might be made that in the case of a mail ballot vote where the outer envelopes are still sealed, a second vote received from one voter could be identified by the postmark, and used to replace the original envelope. But in general, the problem with changing ones secret vote is that there is no way to prove which way one voted to begin with, and the request could be used by an unscrupulous voter as a method of effectively casting two votes. Edited March 21, 2023 at 04:05 PM by Gary Novosielski Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Martin Posted March 21, 2023 at 04:59 PM Report Share Posted March 21, 2023 at 04:59 PM On 3/21/2023 at 10:58 AM, Gary Novosielski said: I can see that an argument might be made that in the case of a mail ballot vote where the outer envelopes are still sealed, a second vote received from one voter could be identified by the postmark, and used to replace the original envelope. I think it would be a very good argument, since RONR explicitly permits this when the "double envelope" method is used. "Should the recipient of the ballots receive two evidently sent in by the same voter, the above procedure permits the voter to be contacted for a determination of which is the voter's true vote and, if both are, which (the most recent) is to be counted." RONR (12th ed.) 45:61 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Honemann Posted March 21, 2023 at 05:16 PM Report Share Posted March 21, 2023 at 05:16 PM Maybe this vote is not supposed to be a secret vote. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Novosielski Posted March 21, 2023 at 05:24 PM Report Share Posted March 21, 2023 at 05:24 PM On 3/21/2023 at 12:59 PM, Josh Martin said: I think it would be a very good argument, since RONR explicitly permits this when the "double envelope" method is used. "Should the recipient of the ballots receive two evidently sent in by the same voter, the above procedure permits the voter to be contacted for a determination of which is the voter's true vote and, if both are, which (the most recent) is to be counted." RONR (12th ed.) 45:61 Yes, I'm not sure that counts as permission to change a vote, but it accomplishes the same result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cathy Guest Posted March 21, 2023 at 07:43 PM Report Share Posted March 21, 2023 at 07:43 PM Thank you, everyone. This is helpful. It is a strange vote, email and semi-anonymous but this answer gives us what we need. Hope to be able to use the vote as a learning experience. Thank you so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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