Summary of asynchronous electronic voting discussion at last BRC meeting

[Scott Forbes]

Hi Democrats,

For those who couldn’t attend last month’s BRC meeting, a brief summary of our discussion around asynchronous voting:

The Finance Committee has a recurring issue where they need to quickly approve recommending minor, uncontroversial changes to the budget to the Exec Board (e.g., to timely increase a budget line item for GOTV or PCO training because we exceeded our fundraising goals and want to do more of those things), but are struggling with getting a quorum of their six-member committee onto a conference call or other “substantially simultaneous” communications medium for the sole purpose of rubber-stamping something. The Exec Board approved standing rules for the Finance Committee that allow them to conduct votes through an asynchronous medium (e.g., email) “subject to rules developed by the Bylaws and Rules Committee,” so the Finance Committee has requested that the BRC develop such rules.

Section 11.4 of our bylaws says, “The Executive Board may authorize electronic participation and voting in meetings of the KCDCC, its Executive Board, or its Committees provided that the Executive Board is assured that such electronic participation will be conducted through […] technology which allows the members to communicate simultaneously or substantially concurrently and allows all members participating in the meeting, whether in person or by electronic means, to have equal opportunity to speak and hear others speak to the same extent as they would at an in-person only meeting.”

After a lengthy discussion, the BRC concluded that Section 11.4 does not explicitly allow committees to take votes asynchronously—and that interpreting “technology which allows the members to communicate simultaneously or substantially concurrently” to include email would be a stretch. So, we decided to revisit this topic at a future BRC meeting and discuss potential amendments to Section 11.4 that would explicitly allow vote-by-email. (Vote by email is permitted in RONR “if the bylaws allow it,” but we couldn’t reach a consensus that our current bylaws allow it.)

Thanks,

— Scott