Introduction
Article VI of the Society's By-Laws, as well as the Procedural Rules in this elections section, govern national officer and bailli elections.
The four sections of Article VI that pertain to elections are:
6.4 Nominations and Elections of the Board of Directors/National Officers and Audit Committee Members
6.5 Terms of Office
6.6 Removal, Death or Resignation
6.7 Baillis - Nominations, Elections, Term and Removal
Procedural Rules for Bailli Elections
(as Amended June 7, 2002)
I. PREAMBLE
Inasmuch as the majority of Bailli elections are uncontested, the purpose of these Procedural Rules are threefold: (1) To simplify the election process for those bailliages which have only a single candidate for the office of Bailli; (2) To insure fairness where there are contested elections by providing a secret absentee voting procedure and by prohibiting premature solicitation of votes; and (3) By providing a more expeditious method for the national Board of Directors to deal with unexpected election problems and make corrective changes in the rules.
II. TIMETABLE
In early January of each election year, a letter shall issue from the National Office to each Bailli inquiring whether the Bailli intends to run again or whether he/she intends to nominate another. Responses must be sent to the respective Bailli Provincial within 14 days, naming the nominee, if any, in which case it must be with the nominee's consent. The Bailli Provincial shall then promptly notify the National Office of the local Bailli's decision.
In early February of the election year, the National Office shall notify all members of a bailliage of their Bailli's intent and shall advise them that any of them can nominate another (with that other's consent), which nomination must be in writing, signed by the one proposing the nomination, and sent to the Bailli Provincial no later than February 20. The Bailli Provincial shall then promptly notify the National Office of all nominations or whether there are no additional nominations.
As of March 1st of the election year:
1. If there is only one candidate for Bailli, a letter shall issue from the National Office notifying all the members of a bailliage of that fact and advising them that no formal election will take place in the bailliage, the single candidate being deemed elected.
2. If there are two or more candidates, the National Office will notify all the members of the bailliage of the names of the candidates and the fact that a formal election will take place in April, and further that solicitation of votes are prohibited until the members solicited are made aware of all candidates.
III. ELECTION PROCEDURE
Promptly after notification that there will be a formal election, the Bailli Provincial and Bailli, with the consent of each candidate, will select the date, time and place of the election. In absence of an agreement the Bailli Provincial shall make the determination.
Each candidate shall promptly appoint one Inspector of Election.
Approximately March 15th of the election year, the National Office shall notify all members of the date, time and place of their bailliage's election, enclosing the official forms of proxy/absentee ballot (to comply with NY law) and appropriate special envelopes. Only the official forms of proxy/absentee ballot which are duly returned to the National Office will be valid. They may not be returned by other means to the site of the election.
The notification from the National Office shall advise the members of the deadline for receipt by the National Office of the official forms of proxy/absentee ballot. For voting purposes, the date for determining National membership in good standing shall coincide with the date the proxy/absentee ballots are mailed from the National Office to the members of the Bailliage. Any proxy/absentee ballots received by the National Office after the deadline shall be invalid as proxy votes, the members' sole recourse being to vote in person at the place of the election, provided that they were members in good standing on the aforesaid membership determination date. The deadline for receipt by the National Office of the completed proxy/absentee ballots shall be set at approximately seven (7) days prior to the date of the election. All special mailing envelopes, containing completed proxy/absentee ballots, received on or before the stated deadline will be sent by the National Office, still sealed, by overnight delivery to the appropriate Bailli Provincial, who shall have the responsibility for delivering the sealed mailing envelopes to the Inspectors of Election at the site of the election. If the Bailli Provincial cannot personally deliver the sealed mailing envelopes to the site of the election, he/she may delegate this responsibility to another National Officer or Regional Officer in his/her region. The sealed mailing envelopes are to remain unopened when they are delivered to the Inspectors of Election at the site of the election. To the extent practicable, the National Office should assemble and send the sealed mailing envelopes to the Bailli Provincial immediately after receipt by the stated deadline.
1. It should be pointed out that, under New York law, in a New York Not-For-Profit Corporation, members may vote only in person or by proxy. Therefore, an absentee ballot may not be voted by a member not attending the election in person unless structured as a proxy (here naming the Inspectors of Election as proxies). The completed ballot is placed in a special Ballot Envelope and sealed. The sealed Ballot Envelope, together with a separate restricted proxy form signed by the member, is then placed in an outer envelope addressed and mailed to the National Office. The restricted proxy requires the proxies to cast the member's vote according to his or her choice as indicated in the sealed Ballot Envelope.
At the formal election, after all persons voting in person have cast their ballots and deposited them in the ballot box, the Inspectors of Election shall open the outer envelopes, checking to make sure that the absentee ballot is not from one who has voted in person. The proxy form with the voting member's signature is then set aside to evidence the fact that his or her vote is being cast as instructed by the proxy form. The special Ballot Envelopes, still sealed, are then placed in the ballot box. The Inspectors of Election open the ballot box, remove the ballots from their Ballot Envelopes and count the absentee votes together with votes cast in person. When all votes have been tallied, the Inspectors of Election announce the results of the election.
Immediately following the election of the Bailli, the Inspectors of Election, together with one other bailliage officer, shall file with the Argentier des Etats-Unis and with the pertinent Bailli Provincial a certificate designating the elected Bailli and confirming that the election was held in accordance with these Procedural Rules.
National Officer Elections
I. PREAMBLE
In order to achieve the same degree of fairness as presently provided for the election of baillis, the Board of Directors believes that substantially similar rules should be established for the election of National Officers. It will simplify the election process where there is only a single candidate for an office and it will insure fairness where there are contested elections by providing a secret absentee voting procedure. Furthermore, it will provide a more expeditious method for the National Board of Directors to deal with unexpected election problems and make corrective changes in the rules.
To comply with New York law, the absentee ballots must be structured as restricted proxies. Also, to avoid any implication of "strong-arming," only the official forms of proxy/absentee ballots which are duly returned by mail to the National Office (or a location unanimously agreed to by the candidates) will be valid. They may not be returned by other means to the site of the election. Therefore, votes may only be cast by members of the National Council in person at the site of the election or by the special mailed proxy/absentee ballot. No other form of proxy will be permitted.
II. TIMETABLE
In early January of each election year, the National Office shall notify all members of the National Council of the date of the National Election, advising them of the names of the then nominees for office and reminding them that under the By-Laws all nominations must be made not less than 45 days prior to the election.
As soon as practicable after the date for closing nominations has passed:
1. If there is only one candidate for an elected office, a letter shall issue from the National Office notifying all the members of the National Council of that fact and advising them that no formal election will take place for that office, the single candidate being deemed elected.
2. If there are two or more candidates for an office, the National Office will notify all the members of the National Council of the names of the candidates and the fact that a formal election will take place.
III. ELECTION PROCEDURE
Promptly after notification that there will be a formal election, the Bailli Delegue, with the consent of each candidate for Bailli Delegue, if any, will select the time and place of the election. In absence of an agreement, the Bailli Delegue shall make the determination.
Each candidate may appoint one Inspector of Election who will be permitted to attend the election.
As soon as practicable after the date for closing nominations has passed, but not less than 30 days prior to the date of the election, the National Office shall notify all members of the National Council of the date, time and place of the election, enclosing the official forms of proxy/absentee ballot (to comply with NY law) and appropriate special envelopes. Candidates for an office shall be listed alphabetically on the ballot. Only the sealed official forms of proxy/absentee ballot which are duly returned by mail to the National Office (or a location unanimously agreed to by the candidates) will be valid. They may not be returned by other means to the site of the election.
1. It should be pointed out that, under New York law, in a New York Not-For-Profit Corporation, members may vote only in person or by proxy. Therefore, an absentee ballot may not be voted by a member not attending the election in person unless structured as a proxy (here naming the Members of the Elections Committee as proxies). The completed ballot is placed in a special Ballot Envelope and sealed. The sealed Ballot Envelope, together with a separate restricted proxy form signed by the member, is then placed in an outer envelope addressed and mailed to the National Office (or a location unanimously agreed to by the candidates). The restricted proxy requires the proxies to cast the member's vote according to his or her choice as indicated in the sealed Ballot Envelope.
At the formal election, after all persons voting in person have cast their ballots and deposited them in the ballot box, the Members of the Elections Committee shall open the outer envelopes, checking to make sure that the absentee ballot is not from one who has voted in person. The proxy form with the voting member's signature is then set aside to evidence the fact that his or her vote is being cast as instructed by the proxy form. The special Ballot Envelopes, still sealed, are then placed in the ballot box. The Members of the Elections Committee open the ballot box, remove the ballots from their Ballot Envelopes and count the absentee votes together with votes cast in person. When all votes have been tallied, the Chairman of the Elections Committee announces the results of the election.
Preferential Voting
PREAMBLE
Under the basic rule of Parliamentary Procedure, which is also the rule established in our By-Laws, an officer must receive a majority vote in order to be elected. A problem arises where there are more than two candidates for a single office, and no one receives a majority vote on the first ballot. In an election where all of the voters are present, you continue to ballot until someone receives a majority vote. However, in our elections for National Officers and Baillis, we use mail-in secret special proxy/absentee ballots. It is impractical to have additional balloting by mail. Therefore, we use preferential voting. As stated in Robert's Rules of Order: "While it is more complicated than other methods of voting in common use and is not a substitute for the normal procedure of repeated balloting until a majority is obtained, preferential voting is especially useful and fair in an election by mail if it is impractical to take more than one ballot."
PROCEDURE
On the preferential ballot-for each office to be filled -the voter is asked to indicate the order in which he prefers all the candidates, placing the numeral 1 beside his first preference, the numeral 2 beside his second preference, and so on for every possible choice.
In counting the votes for a given office, the ballots are arranged in piles according to the indicated first preferences-one pile for each candidate. The number of ballots in each pile is then recorded for the tellers' report. These piles remain identified with the names of the same candidates throughout the counting procedure until all but one are eliminated as described below.
If more that half of the ballots show one candidate indicated as first choice, that choice has a majority in the ordinary sense and the candidate is elected. But if there is no such majority, candidates are eliminated one by one, beginning with the least popular, until one prevails, as follows: The ballots in the thinnest pile-that is, those containing the name designated as first choice by the fewest number of voters-are redistributed into the other piles according to the names marked as second choice on these ballots. The number of ballots in each remaining pile after this distribution is again recorded. If more than half of the ballots are now in one pile, that candidate is elected. If not, the next least popular candidate is similarly eliminated, by taking the thinnest remaining pile and redistributing its ballots according to their second choices into the other piles, except that, if the name eliminated in the last distribution is indicated as second choice on a ballot, that ballot is placed according to its third choice. Again the number of ballots in each existing pile is recorded, and, if necessary, the process is repeated-by redistributing each time the ballots in the thinnest remaining pile, according to the marked second choice or most-preferred choice among those not yet eliminated-until one pile contains more than half of the ballots, the result being thereby determined.
The tellers' report consists of a table listing all candidates, with the number of ballots that were in each pile after each successive distribution.
If a ballot having one or more names not marked with any numeral comes up for placement at any stage of the counting and all of its marked names have been eliminated, it should not be placed in any pile, but should be set aside. If at any point two or more candidates are tied for the least popular position, the ballots in their piles are redistributed in a single step, all of the tied names being treated as eliminated. In the event of a tie in the winning position-which would imply that the elimination process is continued until the ballots are reduced to two or more equal piles-the election should be resolved in favor of the candidate that was strongest in terms of first choices (by referring to the record of the first distribution).
ELECTED AUDIT COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Because of the difficulty, albeit fairness, involved in using the preferential voting procedure for singular officer positions, the three elected members of the Audit Committee, not technically officers, shall be elected on the basis of a plurality vote. The four candidates receiving the highest vote shall be deemed elected even if any of the winning candidates does not receive a majority vote.