Vote Stopped Mid-Vote

[Kathryn Freeman]

Hello.  Our board had a motion that was seconded to remove the Chair who called for the vote.  The Chair said all in favor and four of the six voting members said aye.  At this point, the Chair decided we should stop the vote and go into a private session where they bullied and threatened and turned a one-hour meeting into a five-hour meeting.  In the end, the vote was never allowed to finish with nays or stating the motion was carried.  My question is whether it still carried or not, even though the Chair carried on as if it didn't happen?  As Secretary, I need to know what goes in the minutes.    

[Josh Martin]

On 3/27/2023 at 10:39 PM, Kathryn Freeman said:

Our board had a motion that was seconded to remove the Chair who called for the vote.  The Chair said all in favor and four of the six voting members said aye.  At this point, the Chair decided we should stop the vote and go into a private session where they bullied and threatened and turned a one-hour meeting into a five-hour meeting.  In the end, the vote was never allowed to finish with nays or stating the motion was carried. 

It should first be noted that this was extremely improper. The vote must be taken and the result announced, and no interruptions are permitted during the taking of a vote.

Notwithstanding this, it appears the result is that the processing of the motion was never completed and, as a result, the motion has not been adopted. Based upon the facts presented, I am inclined to think the motion should be taken up as Unfinished Business at the next meeting. I would also note that RONR advises that the chair should not preside over a motion to remove the chair, for reasons which I think are now obvious.

Before the board tries again, read up on RONR (12th ed.) 62:2-15 for Remedies for Abuse of Authority by the Chair in a Meeting. If it comes to it, there are tools to (essentially) ignore the chair and for a member to state the question on the motion themselves. There's no need to put up with hours of bullying.

(I will assume for the sake of argument that the board does, in fact, have the authority to remove the chair under the organization's rules.)

On 3/27/2023 at 10:39 PM, Kathryn Freeman said:

My question is whether it still carried or not, even though the Chair carried on as if it didn't happen?

No. The motion was never fully processed. The vote was not completed and there was no declaration of the result.

On 3/27/2023 at 10:39 PM, Kathryn Freeman said:

As Secretary, I need to know what goes in the minutes.    

It is always difficult to know what to record when things go completely off the rails. But generally, the minutes should record what actually happened, whether or not that is what should have happened. While RONR has no specific answer to what to record in this situation (because it shouldn't happen), I would personally suggest something like this:

"A motion was made and seconded to remove the Chair. After taking the affirmative vote, the assembly entered executive session. The vote was not completed and the motion was not disposed of."

Edited March 28, 2023 at 07:40 PM by Josh Martin

[Gary Novosielski]

On 3/27/2023 at 11:39 PM, Kathryn Freeman said:

Hello.  Our board had a motion that was seconded to remove the Chair who called for the vote.  The Chair said all in favor and four of the six voting members said aye.  At this point, the Chair decided we should stop the vote and go into a private session where they bullied and threatened and turned a one-hour meeting into a five-hour meeting.  In the end, the vote was never allowed to finish with nays or stating the motion was carried.  My question is whether it still carried or not, even though the Chair carried on as if it didn't happen?  As Secretary, I need to know what goes in the minutes.    

I concur with @Josh Martin's recommendations.  

It's worth noting for future reference that once a vote is begun, there is no valid parliamentary method to interrupt it, perhaps short of a fire, in which case the vote would resume as soon as the flames extinguished.  The proper procedure would have been, when the chair failed to call for the Noes, to raise a "Point of Order... that a vote, once started may not be interrupted."

[See RONR (12th ed.) 45:6, 45:9]

Edited March 28, 2023 at 07:15 PM by Gary Novosielski
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[Joshua Katz]

On 3/27/2023 at 8:39 PM, Kathryn Freeman said:

At this point, the Chair decided we should stop the vote and go into a private session where they bullied and threatened and turned a one-hour meeting into a five-hour meeting. 

Question: people put up with this for 5 hours?

[Richard Brown]

Another question: why was the chair presiding over a motion to remove himself?  He should have stepped aside for the  vice president or someone else to handle the motion.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 3/28/2023 at 8:26 PM, Joshua Katz said:

Question: people put up with this for 5 hours?

Sounds less like a meeting and more like a hostage situation.