2 year Board member submits resignation to resign at end of year 1 at annual election time

[Guest Pbannick]

A Board member (2 year term) submits resignation effective at end of year 1 just before annual elections, thus not fulfilling the 2 year term.  Bylaws state Board can fill an empty position (except for President position).  Given it is at annual election time, can we elect a replacement Board member for a 1 year position thru membership voting.  The President wants to fill the position with the next vote getting person from last year's election.  Who is correct?

[Gary Novosielski]

It is definitely incorrect to justify filling a vacancy on the basis of ranked vote-getting when that level indicated a rejection by the voters, and arguably must have been less than a majority. 

But the President does not have the power to fill the position anyway.  The Board does.  If it chooses to do so, the Board may appoint any qualified candidate.  This could conceivably be that "first-place loser" from last year, but certainly not because of that fact, but rather because they consider that person best qualified.

But in my opinion (stay tuned for others), the Board may also decide to leave the choice of who shall fill the vacancy to the voters, since the election is so close.  There are two main options on. how that can be handled, but the choice would then be up to the membership, not to the Board

• The membership could decide to list the unexpired one-year term as if it were a separate office, and people could be nominated for that office instead of, or in addition to, being nominated for the regular two-year seats (presumably two or more) that are up for election; or
• The membership could simply increase by one the number of seats to be filled and then fill the seats based on vote count--the elected candidate with the lowest support filling the one-year term.  You might think that contradicts the earlier advice on ranking, but it does not: Note well that any elected candidate must still gain a majority of the number of ballots cast for Director.  If not enough candidates to fill all seats achieve a majority, second or subsequent ballots will be needed.

Edited October 24, 2023 at 03:05 PM by Gary Novosielski