tie breaking vote in committee Breaking a tie in a committee

[Guest John Ford]

A committee is made up of 4 elected individual, the Chair, the vice-chair, and two other individuals.  If a vote is 2-2, how is the tie broken.  The Chair said they can break the tie however, this in effect allows that person to vote twice.  I say the vote remains a tie and dies.  Who is correct?

[Bruce Lages]

If the vote is on a motion there's no need to break a tie because a tie is less than a majority and therefore the motion fails. In the case of an election (which may be less likely in a committee) a majority is required to elect and since a tie is not a majority and chooses no one, you need to keep voting until a majority is  reached.

And under the rules in RONR, the chair never gets to vote twice on any issue.

Edited May 8, 2023 at 02:46 PM by Bruce Lages
added the last sentence

[Gary Novosielski]

On 5/8/2023 at 10:39 AM, Guest John Ford said:

A committee is made up of 4 elected individual, the Chair, the vice-chair, and two other individuals.  If a vote is 2-2, how is the tie broken.  The Chair said they can break the tie however, this in effect allows that person to vote twice.  I say the vote remains a tie and dies.  Who is correct?

If the vote in favor is less than a majority, the Noes have it and the motion is rejected.   The Chair is in error. You are correct.