OK. I hope I can make this post make sense. Sorry if it's too long!
We had elections last week. We take nominations from all members and call each nominee to accept. Then a slate of candidates is sent home 30 days prior to elections. No nominees are taken from the floor. Our bylaws say nothing about being present at the voting, just that you have to accept the nomination and that's done ahead of time.
We only had one nominee per position so we did a voice vote. One position, the committee chairperson, is one we had serious problems with this past year. The person rarely showed up but always called to tell us so we couldn't take any action about that. Then when she volunteered to do something, it hardly ever got done which left the 2 of us that did most everything to pick up her leftovers. The committee chairperson is in charge of keeping up with volunteer names, contacting volunteers and helping committees get started. I (as Pres) got complaints all year about "I never got called to volunteer" or "you never have enough volunteers". Of course, I was polite and didn't place blame but I'm sure it gave the impression of the "PTO clique" because mostly officers worked events. This wasn't our choice but when the committee chairperson didn't do her job, who else was going to run an event at the last minute?
Anyway, at the election meeting, the nominee for that position didn't show up! I called her 20 minutes after the meeting was supposed to start and she said she forgot. So we went ahead with the meeting and she assured me that she would be at our board meeting the next day. Well, when it came time to vote on her position, no one voted! Not one I or nay!! It was tabled for later by our principal. The next day, this lady was overheard by the incoming President badmouthing the PTO. (This isn't the first time, either). She was mad because we were selling concessions for field day but the principal wouldn't allow the cafeteria to sell their slushies. This lady also works in the cafeteria. Well, it wasn't our fault that they weren't allowed to sell but she didn't care. She refused to help us or even let her kids come to the concession stand. We let it go because we didn't have time to deal with it at the time.
When it came time for our board meeting that afternoon, guess who didn't show up? She didn't come, didn't let us know ahead of time even though we were all at school the whole day!
So, she's not officially elected in but not voted out either. We have a lady that wants to take the position. Our incoming Pres. is so mad, she just wants to give the position to the lady who volunteered after the fact.
My question is, can we do that? Our bylaws say nothing about not being at the elections, nor do they mention no votes either way. I've never had that problem. I decided to step back this time to VP, been pres. for 2 years. I wish now I'd just quietly stepped out completely. The year isn't even over and we're having problems next year already!