Publishing votes by member name

[jcboard]

Can anyone tell me if there are rules that govern how voting results are released? I am writing about a board whose members are elected to set policy for a larger body of constituents. How should the final results be publised? Passed/not passed? Passed 7 to 2? Or should the public be able to see how each member of the board voted?

[Gary Novosielski]

Can anyone tell me if there are rules that govern how voting results are released? I am writing about a board whose members are elected to set policy for a larger body of constituents. How should the final results be publised? Passed/not passed? Passed 7 to 2? Or should the public be able to see how each member of the board voted?

The roll-call vote was intended for just that situation, where the voting members are responsible to a constituency.

RONR p. 405 l. 23 says, "In a representative body, if there is no legal or constitutional provision specifying the size of the minority that can order a roll-call vote, the body should adopt a rule fixing the size of such a minority--for example, one fifth of those present, as in Congress.... In the absence of such a special rule, a majority vote is required...--in which case a motion to do so is likely to be useless, since its purpose is to force the majority to go on record."

The "legal provision" refers to the fact that, in many publicly elected bodies, statute requires a recorded (roll-call) vote for all main motions. If that does not apply to your board, and you don't have such a rule, you probably "should" introduce one.

[Matt Schafer]

Can anyone tell me if there are rules that govern how voting results are released? I am writing about a board whose members are elected to set policy for a larger body of constituents. How should the final results be publised? Passed/not passed? Passed 7 to 2? Or should the public be able to see how each member of the board voted?

The method of releasing or publishing a vote is to write the information in the minutes. Here are the guidelines for the various kinds of votes:

• For a voice vote or a rising (standing) vote that is not counted, the minutes should state only whether the motion was adopted or lost.
  
• For a counted rising vote, the minutes should state whether the motion was adopted or lost and include the number of votes on each side.
  
• For a ballot vote, the minutes should state whether the motion was adopted or lost and include all of the information of the tellers' report.
  
• For a roll call vote, the minutes should state whether the motion was adopted or lost and include a list of the names of those voting on each side and those answering "Present" (and if those numbers are not sufficient, enough additional members who were present but didn't answer at all, in order to record that enough members were present to constitute a quorum).
  

In each of these cases, if the chair votes, no special note should be made in the minutes. Though in a small board, the chair usually can vote anyway.

Keep in mind that a counted, ballot or roll call vote must have actually been taken in order to include the extra information in the minutes. The board can't order the information added if a motion was not adopted to conduct one of these other types of votes. And that motion needs to be adopted before the vote in question, or immediately after the chair announces the result before the next question is stated.

References: RONR (10th ed.), pp. 403-404, 453-454.