Now, once the dust clears a great amendment to have in your by-laws would be a committee made up of two staff and two parents that count the ballots after an election and the ballots are returned to the Secretary for the PTO's records! This isn't in Robert's Rules but helps A LOT when emotions/politics are this high!
Excellent posts. Just one tiny little piece of trivia, when the word Principal refers to a person it is capitalized (proper noun) and spelled with an "a". A principle is not a person. just an fyi....
Thanks to all - the election was a mid year election because the President dropped the ball, and cancelled numerous meetings regarding the election in the spring...
I will pour over the bylaws again, but I don't understand why if the elections were not held at the proper time, and she controlled this, why the organization can't have a valid election later in the year..
Nullifying the current election is not a problem, but in my mind the current year election has now occured, just later than it was supposed to...the person causing the problems was voted out, and the rest of the b.s. can be taken care of by simple majority voting in a meeting of the general organization...they violated roberts rules, and lost the election that should have happened months ago...
Steve,
Dave makes several valid points.
I agree that you need to toss the first election and after establishing the ground rules, conduct another election.
Shades of Floridia elections! Once an election is held, once the balloting has been closed and the ballots counted, no further ballots may be submitted. What you have said is the election was held friday and someone decided to change the rules after the fact. Why did no one win the election on Friday? Ballots were cast and counted there are resutls. What is baring these results from being made official?
You say the balloting was not closed on Friday but this decission was made after ballots had been collected for counting! Who made this rule?
The current board would not have the power to extend the voting once the ballots have begun to be counted!
Now you had two officers duly elected a President and a Treasurer why did they stand for reelection? The special election should have been to fill unfilled offices not to elect a new board or officers lawfully elected in the fall.
What controls were placed on the ballots that a ballot could show up on Monday to be counted?
Ok here is my suggestion. 1) go out and invest in a copy of Roberts Rules - they have an entire section devoted to holding elections and counting ballots.
2) You need to nulify the current election by the membership. This is done by a rescind/repeal motion to the general membership. As you have explained it this election is completely out of order for all the reasons I cited above. Having the memebrship nulify it is a formality that allows the memebrship to take note that it was not lawful. There is NO Nay vote on this. This is purely for the record. It is done without objection, if an objection is made it is merely noted.
3) Determine which offices need to be stood for election. If you have a valid election of the President and Treasurer having them stand for reelection at this time is out or order. Your bylaws control when officers are elected. You may hold special elections at any time to fill vacancies. You may depending on how your by laws are written be able to appoint those officers which is faster and easier. Given a lawful election in the fall of those two officers the only way you would stand them for election again at this time is to impeach them.
4) Have a closing date for nominations if you are going to hold an election that is prior to the election date or the process described in your by laws if one exists. Many organizaitons permit floor nominations on the day of the election since this is normally associated with a general meeting of the membership.
5) If you are going to permit absentee balloting you will need a control process in place. Since you have no sectretary the President and Treasurer will need to do this. Typically a person is eligable to vote on PTO matters if they are a MEMBER of the PTO. You need a process to determine if the absentee ballot is valid. You will have an election day - you open the polls again verifying the person casting a ballot is eligable (and has not already voted by absentee) and you have a time when the polls close - no ballots may be accepted after this time - absentee maybe if you have a rule permitting them to be accepted after.
6) You need to determine which voting and counting process will be used. There are several methods when more than two people are seeking the same office - read Roberts Rules.
I realize this process is not going to achieve the results I think you want which is namely Jane elected President. But the process above is fair and by the rules. What example do we send our children when we as adults wont play by the rules?
If you would like more detailed assistance or if your principal or board members do email me.
