Do abstentions count as present

[Guest ALF]

One person has 22 votes. One has 19. There were 4 abstentions. You need a majority to win. Is 22 a majority or do you count the abstentions in the total vote count. 

[Shmuel Gerber]

On 10/18/2023 at 1:26 PM, Guest ALF said:

One person has 22 votes. One has 19. There were 4 abstentions. You need a majority to win. Is 22 a majority or do you count the abstentions in the total vote count. 

Abstentions are not votes, so 22 is a majority of the votes cast. Members who abstain are considered present, however. 

[Shmuel Gerber]

On 10/18/2023 at 2:00 PM, Shmuel Gerber said:

Abstentions are not votes, so 22 is a majority of the votes cast. Members who abstain are considered present, however. 

They are considered present because they are, in fact, present. 

[Gary Novosielski]

On 10/18/2023 at 2:01 PM, Shmuel Gerber said:

They are considered present because they are, in fact, present. 

As my father was fond of saying, "There's a lot of truth in what actually happens." 

[Gary Novosielski]

On 10/18/2023 at 1:26 PM, Guest ALF said:

One person has 22 votes. One has 19. There were 4 abstentions. You need a majority to win. Is 22 a majority or do you count the abstentions in the total vote count. 

To achieve a majority, a candidate has to get more votes than all the other candidates combined. So in this case, person A. got 22, and all the other one candidate combined got 19.  so person A. is elected.

Abstentions are not votes, because voting is what those members have abstained from doing.  They literally do not count.

Edited to add:

Present members are counted by actually counting members, for the purpose of establishing a quorum, which is a separate issue from voting.  A person who answers Present during a roll-call vote is the same as an abstention.  But even if they don't answer, they are still present, and have still abstained.

Edited October 18, 2023 at 08:00 PM by Gary Novosielski