Absentee ballots - what happens when there is a revote

[Guest Kenny56]

This is a hypothetical question, but one that could arise because some on our organization are pushing for the use of absentee ballots for elections.  A part of this is that our elections are done at large, for more than one position at a time, per the Bylaws.  So, for example we could have 5 persons running for 3 positions that are all the same position - Director.  Our Bylaws state that to be elected, a majority of the votes are required.  So assume we have 40 legal ballots, which requires a majority of 21 or more to be elected, for three open positions.  Suppose we get two people elected with more than 21, and the rest have less.  At that point I believe we must re-open nominations and then have a revote for the third position only.  But what happens to the absentee ballots?  Do they get reused for the revote?  Or are they no longer a valid ballot for the revote?  Or something else?

[Joshua Katz]

On 12/11/2023 at 9:33 AM, Guest Kenny56 said:

Or something else?

Good question. For this and other reasons, RONR strongly cautions against mixing in-person and absentee votes. If your organization thinks is should be done anyway, though, then your rules should be written so as to answer this question, one way or the other.

[Josh Martin]

On 12/11/2023 at 8:33 AM, Guest Kenny56 said:

Suppose we get two people elected with more than 21, and the rest have less.  At that point I believe we must re-open nominations and then have a revote for the third position only.

This is largely a correct understanding, assuming your rules do not provide otherwise. The one clarification I would note is that is not correct that the organization must reopen nominations. The assembly certainly may reopen nominations if it wishes, by majority vote, but the assembly is not obligated to reopen nominations.

I would note that organizations which permit absentee voting for elections, in whole or in part, will often adopt rules providing for election by plurality, or preferential voting, due to the impracticality of repeated balloting. Some such organizations also provide tiebreaker rules to cover those bases as well.

On 12/11/2023 at 8:33 AM, Guest Kenny56 said:

But what happens to the absentee ballots?  Do they get reused for the revote?  Or are they no longer a valid ballot for the revote?  Or something else?

RONR has no answer to this question. The strong advice in RONR is that either everyone votes at the meeting or everyone votes absentee, rather than mixing and matching, in order to avoid problems like this. If your organization disregards this advice, it will need to think through answers to questions like this one.

"An organization should never adopt a bylaw permitting a question to be decided by a voting procedure in which the votes of persons who attend a meeting are counted together with ballots mailed in by absentees. The votes of those present could be affected by debate, by amendments, and perhaps by the need for repeated balloting, while those absent would be unable to adjust their votes to reflect these factors. Consequently, the absentee ballots would in most cases be on a somewhat different question than that on which those present were voting, leading to confusion, unfairness, and inaccuracy in determining the result. If there is a possibility of any uncertainty about who will be entitled to vote, this should be spelled out unambiguously and strictly enforced to avoid unfairness in close votes." RONR (12th ed.) 45:56, emphasis added

Edited December 11, 2023 at 03:23 PM by Josh Martin

[Atul Kapur]

On 12/11/2023 at 9:33 AM, Guest Kenny56 said:

some on our organization are pushing for the use of absentee ballots for elections.

Usually, the previous responses would start by asking if your bylaws specifically and explicitly allow absentee voting. If they do not -- and there is no requirement for it in superior rules -- then it is prohibited.

[Joshua Katz]

On 12/11/2023 at 11:15 AM, Atul Kapur said:

Usually, the previous responses would start by asking if your bylaws specifically and explicitly allow absentee voting. If they do not -- and there is no requirement for it in superior rules -- then it is prohibited.

I did not ask that because I took the question to be asking about a potential bylaws amendment.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 12/11/2023 at 9:33 AM, Guest Kenny56 said:

This is a hypothetical question, but one that could arise because some on our organization are pushing for the use of absentee ballots for elections. 

If you do decide to use them, you should require that either everyone votes absentee or nobody does.  Mixing in-person and absentee votes creates just the sort of problem you have anticipated.

Here's some advice from RONR:

44:11
A plurality vote is the largest number of votes to be given any candidate or proposition when three or more choices are possible; the candidate or proposition receiving the largest number of votes has a plurality. A plurality that is not a majority never chooses a proposition or elects anyone to office except by virtue of a special rule previously adopted. If such a rule is to apply to the election of officers, it must be prescribed in the bylaws. A rule that a plurality shall elect is unlikely to be in the best interests of the average organization. In an international or national society where the election is conducted by mail ballot, a plurality is sometimes allowed to elect officers, with a view to avoiding the delay and extra expense that would result from additional balloting under these conditions. A better method in such cases is for the bylaws to prescribe some form of preferential voting (see 45:62–69).

There are several types of preferential voting known, but none of them is perfect--in fact, it may have been proven to be mathematically impossible--so each will have its own pros and cons. 

One of them, described in 45:63, called Single Transferable Voting, or Instant Run-off Voting, proceeds using voters' ranked preferences to simulate multiple ballots, with the least popular choice being eliminated at each round until someone gets a majority.  It's more complicated to count, but I am told software exists to help. 

Another type, called Borda Count, works by assigning points based on the ranking assigned by the voters, so that being listed as a first choice gains more points than being listed as a second choice.  Most points wins.

There is also Condorcet voting, which simulates pairwise head-to-head contests between all possible pairings, and seeks to find someone who would win in a one-to-one election with each of the other candidates.

So if you go the preferential route, you have some research ahead of you, but it may be less of a burden than trying to run multiple ballots by mail.  And any of those methods, in my view, would be preferable to plurality voting.

 

Edited December 11, 2023 at 08:30 PM by Gary Novosielski