Understanding voting

Voting INFORMATION

The Valley Chapter relies upon its own membership bylaws for conducting its day-to-day business. In addition, the Chapter uses PORAC bylaws and Robert's Rules of Order to provide guidance in parliamentary procedure and voting.

To better understand some of these procedures, we are providing several questions and answers that the membership might encounter.

It should be noted that these questions and answers have been collected from the Chapter bylaws, PORAC bylaws, and the Official Robert's Rules of Order website. While some have been paraphrased (for the purpose of ease of reading), we encourage you to visit the respective websites to view the documents. For those interested in learning more about Robert's Rules, please visit: http://www.robertsrules.com/faq.html.

Question:

Answer:

Who can vote at a monthly Chapter meeting?

Any Valley Chapter PORAC member in attendance, who is an eligible active member and who's active member association is in good standing (Article II, Section 4(A) and (B)), may participate in all voice votes brought before the membership at a monthly meeting.

All votes require a simple majority of those members present, with the exception of any endorsement recommendation for a state-elected official. Any endorsement recommendations for state-elected officials can only be passed by a two thirds majority of members present.

Question:

Answer:

What is a representative or roll-call vote?

A roll-call or representative vote simply means that only the authorized representatives from each of the active member associations present will be permitted to vote. Each member association shall be entitled to cast one vote as an association, and one additional vote for each 100 eligible members (Chapter Article VIII, Section 1 (A), State Article X, Section 5).

The president, officially on file with PORAC, is the only member who is authorized to vote on behalf of their respective association. Should a president be unable to attend a meeting, there are two proactive steps that may be taken:

Designations: A signed designation form may be presented to the Valley Chapter president or presiding officer, naming the person who is authorized to vote on their association's behalf.
- A designation can only be provided to an eligible member of your own active member association.
- Designations must be in writing and presented prior to the gavel drop at the intended meeting.
Proxies: A signed proxy form may be presented to the Valley Chapter president or presiding officer, naming a person who is authorized to vote on behalf of their association.
- A proxy can only be provided to an eligible PORAC member who is not a member of your own association.
- Proxies must be in writing and presented prior to the gavel drop at the intended meeting. However, they must be signed and dated by the issuing association president, at least four (4) days prior to the intended meeting.

Once a proxy or designation form has been officially submitted, it shall not be rescinded unless the president of the granting Association/Organization attends the meeting and personally rescinds the notification.

To learn more about proxies and designations, please visit the Meeting Info page.

Question:

In determining the result of a vote, what constitutes a majority?

Answer:

The word “majority” in this context means, simply, more than half (or 50% +1).

Question:

In general, how is voting handled during a Chapter meeting?

Answer:

A quorum is deemed present whe

Question:

Answer:

Can a roll-call vote be rounded to the nearest number when computing the result of a vote?

No. The requirement of a two-thirds (2/3) vote means at least two-thirds. As a consequence, nothing less will do.

Question:

Answer:

How are votes counted when a member abstains?

In the usual situation, where either a majority vote or a two-thirds vote is required, abstentions have absolutely no effect on the outcome of the vote since what is required is either a majority or two thirds of the votes cast.

However, if the vote required is a majority or two-thirds of the members present, or a majority or two thirds of the entire membership, an abstention will have the same effect as a “no” vote. Even in such a case, however, an abstention is not a vote and is not counted as a vote. (RONR [11th ed.], p. 400, II. 7-12; p401, II. 8-11; p. 403, II. 13-24)

It should be noted that the vast majority of votes taken at Chapter meetings will fall under the provision of the second sentence, as all of our votes are typically a majority of the members present.