Question: Can you rescind a funding request if there was an improper vote?

Recently a board member suggested the PTO pay for a "memorial bench" be placed to honor a student that died many years ago from cancer. Originally, the student's family purchased a bench that over the years fell apart. Due to liability concerns the district will only allow a replacement bench to be purchased meeting very specific requirements (also very expensive...$600.) This board member felt very strongly that the PTO should cover the costs of this bench and requested a verbal vote instead of a written vote. The measure passed, but now members of the board who were not in favor would like to rescind funding and have a written vote. Is that possible?

Asked by Anonymous

Answers:

Community Advice

Parttimeparli writes:
A motion to reconsider is what you're wanting. Someone can move to reconsider the previous motion (to buy the bench) as long as the action being reconsidered has not yet happened ( the bench hasn't been purchased yet). A majority vote is all that it takes. A person could also move that the vote to reconsider be by ballot and the vote to purchase the bench be by ballot. RONR (Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised) states that "A member who believes that a secret vote will give a truer expression of the assembly's will on a pending motion can move that the vote on the motion be taken by ballot".A ballot is nothing more that a slip of paper on which the voter marks his vote.