tie vote Vote to break a Tie?

[Guest Alyce]

So we had a special called meeting regarding adopting a resolution. We have 3 councilmen, one mayor pro tem. One councilmen motioned to adopt, the mayor pro tem seconded. Two other councilmen opposed. 
In this situation, could the mayor pro tem have voted to break the tie? or not because mayor pro tem seconded the motion earlier on? 
TIA! 

[Rob Elsman]

The seconder of a motion does not lose his right to vote.  He is even allowed to vote against a resolution the motion to adopt of which he had seconded.  Assuming the mayor pro tem ordinarily has the right to vote, he may exercise that right on motions that he had also seconded.

Just as an aside, in some local governments, the mayor presides at council meetings but does not have the right to vote, since he has a power to exercise an executive veto.  Where this is the case, since he is not a voting member, he would not have the right to second motions without a suspension of the rules.

[Guest Alyce]

On 6/20/2023 at 11:56 AM, Rob Elsman said:

The seconder of a motion does not lose his right to vote.  He is even allowed to vote against a resolution the motion to adopt of which he had seconded.  Assuming the mayor pro tem ordinarily has the right to vote, he may exercise that right on motions that he had also seconded.

Just as an aside, in some local governments, the mayor presides at council meetings but does not have the right to vote, since he has a power to exercise an executive veto.  Where this is the case, since he is not a voting member, he would not have the right to second motions without a suspension of the rules.

Thank you! I did leave out that the mayor pro tem did vote to adopt along with a councilmen. 
in this case, where there are 2 votes to adopt (one being from the mayor pro tem) and there are 2 vote opposing, would the mayor pro tem have a second vote to break that tie? 

[Rob Elsman]

No.  It is perfectly proper for the presiding member in a small assembly to vote right along with the other members, but, having done so, he does not get a second vote to make or break a tie.  There is a fundamental principle of parliamentary law that can be summarized as "one person, one vote".

[Guest Alyce]

On 6/20/2023 at 12:07 PM, Rob Elsman said:

No.  It is perfectly proper for the presiding member in a small assembly to vote right along with the other members, but, having done so, he does not get a second vote to make or break a tie.  There is a fundamental principle of parliamentary law that can be summarized as "one person, one vote".

Thank you!! That answers my question! 

[Gary Novosielski]

On 6/20/2023 at 11:35 AM, Guest Alyce said:

So we had a special called meeting regarding adopting a resolution. We have 3 councilmen, one mayor pro tem. One councilmen motioned to adopt, the mayor pro tem seconded. Two other councilmen opposed. 
In this situation, could the mayor pro tem have voted to break the tie? or not because mayor pro tem seconded the motion earlier on? 
TIA! 

You seem to be confusing moving and seconding with voting.  If one member moved and another member seconded, so far nobody has voted.  It is still possible, though unlikely, for all four to vote No on the motion.

A motion that does not achieve majority approval fails, so a tie vote rejects the motion.  Presuming the Mayor pro tem, after seconding the motion, vote Yes, then the motion simply fails.  Nobody gets to vote twice.

[Guest Shirley Hill]

We had a special meeting including mayor and 5 council members. To vote on a change. Please give clarity, a vote was taken 3 yes and 2 nay so the mayor voted nay which tied vote 3-3 in this case , who will break the tie ? Or do we wait on the other member to return then vote again?

[Bruce Lages]

No one breaks the tie. Unless this is an election (which it doesn't appear to be), a tie vote defeats the motion since it is not a majority (i.e., more than half the votes cast excluding blanks and abstentions). The motion could be made again at a subsequent session. If the vote is on an election, you continue with additional rounds of voting until the tie is broken.