SUO: Voting Rules
SUO Members,
Since we have a couple votes coming up, I should clarify my
interpretation of the rules on how ballots are tallied.
After the SUMO vote of Aug 2001, a ruling came down from the IEEE
Standards Association Board of Governors that overturned that vote. That
ruling stated that a majority of all ballots (including ABSTAINS) must
vote YES for a motion to pass. For example, 3 YES, 2 NO, and 2 ABSTAIN
would not pass, because out of 7 total votes, 4 must be YES for it to
pass. This directive applied only to the SUMO vote. There was talk and
perhaps intention to change IEEE voting rules, but no such announcements
or changes in policies & procedures came down. To my knowledge, none of
the other ~400 IEEE standards groups are following that ruling. It
remains common practice by IEEE groups to follow the Roberts Rules of
Order rule that ABSTAINS are not counted in the ballot tally (i.e. 3 YES,
2 NO, 2 ABSTAIN would pass). Based on this, I believe the proper rules
to follow are that of Roberts Rules of Order.
Jim Schoening
Chair, SUO WG
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