Incorrect Vote

[Guest kathryn]

I have a strange situtation. a member of the BOD moved to "not" do something. This vote was being taken via email which is allowed in our organization. So he wrote the motion "not " to do something, then wrote - I vote No not to .....Before anyone realized what he wrote all members of the BOD voted. If his counts as a "no", the motion is defeated. Is that accurate or do we just assume we know what he meant?

[George Mervosh]

If a motion was adopted with language that you don't like, move to amend it. RONR, p. 293

RONR also says to avoid motions "not" to do something.

Whether he knew what he was doing or not is irrelevant.

[hmtcastle]

If his counts as a "no", the motion is defeated.

If a motion was adopted with language that you don't like, move to amend it.

And if the motion was defeated, it can be made again (in the proper form), or simply forgotten.

[Trina]

You may want to read RONR p. 402 ll. 12-21, which deals with the processing of unclear paper ballots. Since you have a written communication in front of you (the member's e-mail vote), some of the same principles may be useful. The cited text deals with the situation where the doubtful ballot could influence the outcome of the vote -- in that case the tellers refer the matter to the chair, who submits it to the decision of the assembly. However, this text is not dispositive, since RONR does not explicitly give you rules for handling votes by e-mail. If your assembly allows e-mail votes, it should really put rules in place to handle all the details.

[Gary Novosielski]

I have a strange situtation. a member of the BOD moved to "not" do something. This vote was being taken via email which is allowed in our organization. So he wrote the motion "not " to do something, then wrote - I vote No not to .....Before anyone realized what he wrote all members of the BOD voted. If his counts as a "no", the motion is defeated. Is that accurate or do we just assume we know what he meant?

Next time, the chair should note that the motion is improperly phrased and help the maker put it into the proper form. Moving "not" to do something is typically not in order, since the same thing would be accomplished by making no motion at all. Nothing still would be done.

Also, if the motion "not" to do something is defeated, that does not imply approval that the thing should be done. It just means that nothing changes.