Parliamentary Procedure Q&A

Q: At our Annual Meeting, Board members were voted for by ballot. Tellers went to another room to count the ballots. The Secretary brought the ballot box to them and vote counted, reported to the President, and announced. One member received 30 votes and was elected to a board position for two years; the other member received 29 votes and would become a member of the board if someone resigns. Some of the votes were handed directly to the teller. Noted in minutes and published in newsletter. The minutes will be approved at the next Annual Meeting.

Two weeks have gone by. The President now says she has found another vote in a ballot box, and that the vote was a tie. She says that the fill in will become the two year member and the elected member only one year.

Was the vote a tie? - Anon., Sep. 30, 1999

A: No. The election was completed when the result was announced (or, if the winner wasn't present at the time of the election and hadn't consented to his candidacy, when he later accepted the position). (See RONR pp. 436-37.) The ballot found in the box is irrelevant.

Unless your bylaws state otherwise, if the result had been a tie at the time of election, a re-balloting would have been required, not - in effect - a second vote by the president breaking the tie.

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