Notes and Comments on Robert's Rules, Fourth Edition

Voting

124 Voting How is majority vote defined? Unless defined differently in the bylaws, a majority vote is more than half of the votes cast (54, 400). Three features are important here: 1. The definition is more than half—not “one more than half.” What can happen if the definition is one more than half? chair: By a vote of thirteen to twelve, the motion is adopted. member: Madam Chairman, what was that vote again? chair: Thirteen to twelve. member: How many votes were cast? chair: Twenty-five. member: How do we define majority? chair: One more than half. member: What is half of twenty-five? chair: Twelve and one-half. member: What is one more than half? chair: Thirteen and one-half. member: What was that vote again? chair: Oops. The same problem occurs if majority is incorrectly defined as 51 percent. Again, majority means more than half, not 51 percent, not one more than half. Do not make this mistake! This can be the result:If Thomas Laehn . . . would have received half a vote more in the student government election, he would have been named Drake University’s 2002–2003 student body president on Tuesday night. However, as it stands, an online runoff election will take place on Monday, Feb. 25, from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. between Laehn and Erika Grimwood. . . . The rules of student government elections state that a candidate “must receive one-half of the votes plus one vote” to win 125 Voting the race. In a presidential race where 741 students voted, Laehn received 371 votes, Grimwood received 320 votes, and David Norber . . . received 50 votes.78 Although 371 is a majority (“more than half”) of 741, no one was elected in this situation because of a rule redefining a majority as “half plus one.” The moral? Parliamentary procedure is complicated and difficult enough as it is; do not create unnecessary problems. 2. The definition is votes cast: not votes of members present; not votes of the membership; not votes of the members in good standing. The point is that only those who engage in the act of voting (either for or against) determine whether a motion is adopted. For example, an organization has one hundred members. Eighty are present at a meeting. On a main motion, fifty members vote. How many members must vote in favor of the motion for it to pass? Answer: twenty-six. At the same meeting, a motion could be adopted by a vote of one in favor and none opposed. 3. The definition is all votes. Robert’s says “more than half of the votes cast by persons entitled to vote, excluding blanks or abstentions ” (400). That means, if a voter entitled to vote casts an illegal vote, the vote counts toward the number voting. Again, Robert’s: “All ballots that indicate a preference—provided they have been cast by persons entitled to vote—are taken into account in determining the number of votes cast for purposes of computing the majority” (415).79 How can a two-thirds vote be quickly calculated? If you are without electronics, Demeter’s Manual suggests applying this simple formula: “Double the number of votes cast for the negative side; if the negative votes exceed (are more than) the number of votes cast for the affirmative side, you do not have a 2/3 vote.”80 May the usual bases for determining a majority or two-thirds vote be changed? Yes. Specific bylaws language or state statutes may sometimes change votes from being based on those members “present and voting” to some other denominator, such as the percentage of “members present ” or “the entire membership.” 126 Notes and Comments on Robert’s Rules What is an illegal vote? An illegal vote is, of course, a vote that is not legal. A vote is illegal if two completed ballots are folded together (both are rejected and count as one vote cast); if the vote is for too many candidates; if the vote is unintelligible; if the vote is for an unidentifiable candidate; or if the vote is for a fictional character (415–17). The illegal vote in each case is included in the number of votes cast. A distinction must be made between an illegal vote made by a member entitled to vote and a vote made by a person not entitled to vote. Any vote by a person who...