Breaking a tie amongst 4 board members

[Blue Ribbon]

Our organization has 6 board members; pres, vice pres, secretary , treasurer, Sargent arms, recorder. The last two positions are vacant.. leaving only four. We spilt 2/2 on voting in new board members… how do we break the tie??

[Guest Blue Ribbon]

We have 4 members left on our board, how do we break a tie when voting on new members 

[Gary Novosielski]

If four people vote, a majority is 3.  Ties are, by definition, less than a majority, and so any motion that results in a tie simply fails, like any other vote that is less than a majority.  There's nothing that needs breaking.

The only time ties are a problem is in an election, where not electing anyone is not an option, so repeated balloting is required.  But the principle is the same--election requires a majority, which means strictly more than half of the votes cast.

Edited November 30, 2023 at 04:55 AM by Gary Novosielski

[Josh Martin]

On 11/29/2023 at 10:21 PM, Blue Ribbon said:

Our organization has 6 board members; pres, vice pres, secretary , treasurer, Sargent arms, recorder. The last two positions are vacant.. leaving only four. We spilt 2/2 on voting in new board members… how do we break the tie??

Vote again, and keep voting until you break the tie. Learn how to compromise.

If there's two positions open, seems like an easy way to split the baby would be to agree to one side's choice for one position and one side's choice for the other.

On 11/29/2023 at 10:52 PM, Gary Novosielski said:

If four people vote, a majority is 3.  Ties are, by definition, less than a majority, and so any motion that results in a tie simply fails, like any other vote that is less than a majority.  There's nothing that needs breaking.

The only time ties are a problem is in an election, where not electing anyone is not an option, so repeated balloting is required.  But the principle is the same--election requires a majority, which means strictly more than half of the votes cast.

And it looks like they are having an election.

On 11/29/2023 at 10:21 PM, Blue Ribbon said:

Our organization has 6 board members; pres, vice pres, secretary , treasurer, Sargent arms, recorder. The last two positions are vacant.. leaving only four. We spilt 2/2 on voting in new board members… how do we break the tie??

On 11/29/2023 at 10:34 PM, Guest Blue Ribbon said:

We have 4 members left on our board, how do we break a tie when voting on new members 

Edited November 30, 2023 at 08:33 PM by Josh Martin

[Gary Novosielski]

On 11/30/2023 at 3:32 PM, Josh Martin said:

And it looks like they are having an election.

That's why I gave the rules for both cases.