When a vote is tied?

[mb100]

Our constitution states the following:

Questions arising at any meeting shall be decided by a majority of votes. Where there is an equality of votes, the Chairperson shall have and shall exercise a second or casting vote

An example: Votes for the Motion 34 - Votes against the motion 34. The Chair ( who may already have voted ) is then required to deicide the question. A practice that I was advised by an experienced chair in such instances was that the chair should vote to fail the motion as the assembly did not actually approve it and it needs to be 'reconsidered/brought back in the future)

I would have thought that as the motion did not get a majority then it fails and a casting or deciding vote is not required. And as the 'practice' above is not defined , it would be better to delete the piece about chair having a second vote and simply let the motion fail if it does not achieve the required majority. 

I would appreciate views to help us as we are reviewing our constitution

[Dan Honemann]

On 4/6/2023 at 1:13 PM, mb100 said:

Our constitution states the following:

Questions arising at any meeting shall be decided by a majority of votes. Where there is an equality of votes, the Chairperson shall have and shall exercise a second or casting vote

An example: Votes for the Motion 34 - Votes against the motion 34. The Chair ( who may already have voted ) is then required to deicide the question. A practice that I was advised by an experienced chair in such instances was that the chair should vote to fail the motion as the assembly did not actually approve it and it needs to be 'reconsidered/brought back in the future)

I see no reason why you were given this advice.  The chair may either vote "aye", if he wants the motion to pass, or "no" if he wants it to fail.

 

On 4/6/2023 at 1:13 PM, mb100 said:

I would have thought that as the motion did not get a majority then it fails and a casting or deciding vote is not required. 

But your Constitution mandates that the chair cast this vote

 

On 4/6/2023 at 1:13 PM, mb100 said:

And as the 'practice' above is not defined , it would be better to delete the piece about chair having a second vote and simply let the motion fail if it does not achieve the required majority. 

I would appreciate views to help us as we are reviewing our constitution

I agree.  I think that giving your chair two votes is a very bad idea.