Write In Ballot

[Guest Tom]

Hello,

We are heading into our annual elections next month. Nominations were taken for all board positions at our meeting this month. The office of president is unopposed however there are some that would like to see it challenged. Reading through RONR page 427, there is something mentioned that in the case of a single candidate election, the members have the ability to "write in" a person on their ballot.

Do I have the correct interpertation?

[Robert B Fish]

The option to write in a candidate who was not nominated exists regardless of the number nominated, i.e. single unopposed candidate or cases where multiple candidates were nominated.

-Bob

[David A Foulkes]

Hello,

We are heading into our annual elections next month. Nominations were taken for all board positions at our meeting this month. The office of president is unopposed however there are some that would like to see it challenged. Reading through RONR page 427, there is something mentioned that in the case of a single candidate election, the members have the ability to "write in" a person on their ballot.

Do I have the correct interpertation?

Tom - you mention ballot. That could be important. You would need to check your bylaws to see if there is any specification of voting procedures, particularly in the case of a single candidate. It might be that in that case, (assuming ballots aren't required in ALL elections), the chair might be able to pronounce the candidate a winner by acclamation (unanimous consent), sidestepping the ballot vote and your ability to write in another name. However, you could make a motion to have the vote by ballot, and if adopted, you have your write-in ability.

Here's the rub -- if nobody else feels strongly about nominating another member to run against the President, then it's not likely your write-in vote will do much about that anyway. Now, if you have a majority (which you'd need) of the members who are more inclined to vote for someone else, why doesn't someone nominate that person and make it "official" (he asked, loosely)? Of course, it would be really interesting if you kept it all a secret, got the ballot vote method adopted, and then all wrote in the same name and your candidate won! Quelle Surprise!

[Rob Elsman]

Hello,

We are heading into our annual elections next month. Nominations were taken for all board positions at our meeting this month. The office of president is unopposed however there are some that would like to see it challenged. Reading through RONR page 427, there is something mentioned that in the case of a single candidate election, the members have the ability to "write in" a person on their ballot.

Do I have the correct interpertation?

As far as the rules in RONR are concerned, nominations will be open again at the meeting next month, so members who might wish to nominate someone else will have the opportunity to do so before the election is held. The way this works is that the presiding officer reads the names of those already nominated and asks if there are any further nominations. Members can make nominations from the floor at that time. When all the nominations have been gathered, the presiding officer closes nominations, reads the names of all the nominees, and begins the regular election procedure.