Voice vote

[Guest David]

I was told that if a majority of eligible voters vote in favor of a motion by a voice vote, it is to be considered a unanimous vote. I was told this was based on Roberts rules of order, but I have not been able to find this understanding.

[Joshua Katz]

I don't think you will. First of all, RONR assigns little importance to whether a vote is unanimous or not. In fact, the only time is comes up is unanimous consent, and if a unanimous consent request fails, nothing is lost. Second, if more people respond to the call for ayes than for nayes, but someone responds to the call for nayes, it's not unanimous, and nothing in RONR says it is. You might ask the person so claiming for a citation.

[Josh Martin]

On 2/9/2024 at 7:02 AM, Guest David said:

I was told that if a majority of eligible voters vote in favor of a motion by a voice vote, it is to be considered a unanimous vote. I was told this was based on Roberts rules of order, but I have not been able to find this understanding.

No, this is not correct.

Generally, the term "unanimous" is used to mean, at a minimum, that no one voted against the motion.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 2/9/2024 at 8:02 AM, Guest David said:

I was told that if a majority of eligible voters vote in favor of a motion by a voice vote, it is to be considered a unanimous vote. I was told this was based on Roberts rules of order, but I have not been able to find this understanding.

No, that's absurd.