: : Also, an organization should never adopt a bylaw rule permitting a motion or the election of officers to be decided by a voting procedure in which the votes of members who attend a meeting are counted together with ballots mailed in by absentees. : Really? Isn't that what every stock corporation does at its annual meeting? : Martin Martin - Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 10th edition has the following to pertaining to absentee voting: It is a fundamental principle of parliamentary law that the right to vote is limited to the members of an organization who are actually present at the time the vote is taken in a meeting. He continues: An organization should never adopt a bylaw permitting a motion or the election of officers to be decided by a voting procedure in which the votes of persons who attend a meeting are counted together with ballots mailed in by absentees. The votes of those present could be affected by debate, by amendments, and perhaps by the need for repeated balloting, while those absent would be unable to adjust their votes to reflect these factors. Consequently, the absentee ballots would in most cases be on a somewhat different question than that on which those persons were voting, leading to confusion, unfairness, and inaccuracy in determining the result. Martin - If there was a tie vote in the election, how could those or voted by absentee get to vote to break the tie? In a tie, reballoting is necessary unless preferential or cumulative voting is used. Also, nominations from the floor are always in order unless there is a rule in the bylaws prohibiting it. If a member is nominated from the floor, those who voted by absentee would never have the opportunity to cast a vote for that nominee. The IJA is NOT a stock corporation. If it were, different rules would apply. Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 10th edition has the following to say about proxy voting: A proxy is a power of attorney given by one person to another to vote in his stead; the term also designates the person who holds the power of attorney. Proxy voting is NOT permitted in ordinary deliberative assemblies unless the laws of the state in which the society is incorporated require it, or the charter or bylaws of the organization provide for it. Ordinarily it should neither be allowed nor required, because proxy voting is incompatible with the essential characteristics of a deliberaive assembly in which membership is individual, personal, and nontransferable. In a stock corporation, on the other hand, where the ownership is transferable, the voice and vote of the member is transferable, by use of a proxy. Robert M. Puhalla
: Or are you distinguishing ballots from proxies?
As to proxy voting -