Green Party of the United States - National Committee Voting

Home	Vote	Results	History	Contacts	Admin
	National Committee Voting

Login

Proposal Details

Proposal ID	266
Proposal	Process for Resolution of Procedural Objections
Presenter	Georgia Green Party
Floor Manager	Holly Hart
Phase	Closed
Discussion	03/12/2007 - 03/25/2007
Voting	03/26/2007 - 04/01/2007
Result	Adopted
Presens Quorum	32 0.6666
Consens Quorum	51 0.6666 of Yes and No Votes

Background

Democratic deliberative bodies have traditionally provided
a process whereby the members of the body might "object from
the ruling of the chair" and without significant disruption
to the forward progress of the business before the body, have
such a ruling reversed, if the objection is supported by a
simple majority of the body. Most legislative assemblies
provide such a process, as does Robert's Rules of Order,
universally used by nonprofit and corporate boards, and by
membership organizations. Such a procedure is an essential
check and balance to ensure that the actions of a body's chair
are consistent with its own rules.

The rules of the Green Party of the United States, to date,
do not provide for such a process.

Proposal

A resolution to amend the Rules and Procedures of the
Green Party of the United States; to provide a process
for the consideration and resolution of appeals from the
decision of the Steering Committee, the Floor Manager
or the facilitator; to provide that such an appeal shall
stay the decision appealed until resolved; to provide for
the inclusion of a written protest in the minutes of the
National Committee; and for other purposes.

A Resolution of the
National Committee of the
Green Party of the United States

Section 1.

The Rules and Procedures of the Green Party of the United
States, Article 6., related to "Voting Rules", is amended
by renaming Article 6. "Deliberation and Resolution of
Business Before the National Committee", and further by
redesignating the existing Article 6., as Article 6.,
Section A., Voting Rules.

Section 2.

The Rules and Procedures of the Green Party of the United
States, Article 6., is further amended by inserting at
the end a new Section B., to read as follows:

B. Appeals from a Decision of the Steering Committee,
Floor Manager or Facilitator

1. Form of appeals

Should any five members of the Green National Committee
of the Party representing any five accredited state
Parties or Caucuses assert that any ruling of the
Steering Committee or the Floor Manager on any point
with respect to the handling of a Proposal submitted
for the consideration of the National Committee was
made contrary to the rules governing such rulings,
such objection shall be recognized, and shall serve
to initiate an appeal from the decision. When meeting
face-to-face a Delegate may raise such an objection by
respectfully addressing the facilitator and stating: "I
appeal from the decision of the facilitator because this
ruling is contrary to our rules" and then explaining
the inconsistentency. When meeting by email such
an objection may be initiated by posting the same
statement to the votes list. Any such appeal which
is then joined by sufficient cosponsors as required
by this paragraph shall stay the effective date of
that decision, pending the resolution of the appeal.

2. Putting the appeal to the body

The facilitator at a face-to-face meeting, or the
Floor Manager, when conducting business by email,
shall acknowledge the appeal by stating to the body the
point ruled on, the Steering Committee or facilitator's
decision on it and shall then put the appeal to the
National Committee. The question put to the body shall
be framed as: "Shall the body sustain the decision of
the Steering Committee (or the Floor Manager or the
facilitator) that . . . "

3. Debate and National Committee consideration of
an appeal

Debate on the correctness of the ruling shall be
limited to twenty minutes when meeting face-to-face or
when conducting business by email shall end at 12:00
midnight Pacific on the day following the day on which
the appeal is acknowledged by the Floor Manager as being
in order due to its having sufficent cosponsors. The
facilitator or Floor Manager shall then put the question
of the appeal to the body for a vote. When conducting
business by email, the vote shall commence upon the
close of debate and shall close seventy-two hours later.

4. Resolution of an appeal

The ruling of the Steering Committee, Floor Manager or
facilitator shall be sustained unless overruled by the vote
of a majority of those voting, who voted in opposition to
the question of sustaining the decision, provided votes have
been cast by Delegates from at least a simple majority of
the Accredited states and caucuses eligible to cast votes on
the matter. All appeals from the decision of the Steering
Committee or facilitator at a face-to-face meetings shall
be made immediately, and no appeal shall be in order after
other business has intervened from the time of the alleged
error of the Steering Committee or facilitator and before
the appeal is sought. All appeals from the decision of the
Steering Committee or Floor Manager when conducting business
by email shall be made not later than midnight Pacific time,
the third complete day after the publication to the votes
list of the decision appealed.

5. Recording a protest in the minutes of the body

Any member may have entered in the minutes a protest
in writing based on any ruling so made. Said protest
shall clearly and succinctly set forth the grounds of
such protest and shall not exceed 200 words. It shall
not impugn the motive of the body or any member thereof.

Resources

CONTACT: Hugh Esco, GGP; hesco at greens.org

The adoption of this paper requires no additional Party
resources and the use of this process, once adopted, should
require only the additional attention of the facilitator,
floor manager and Steering Committee to properly use this
process once invoked.

References

CT Butler's On Conflict and Consensus,
http://www.wandreilagh.org/consensus.pdf
provides on page 28:
"All structural decisions (i.e., which roles to use,
who fills each role, and which facilitation technique
and/or group discussion technique to use) are adopted
by consensus without debate. Any objection automatically
causes a new selection to be made."

Robert's Rules of Order provides:
http://www.robertsrules.org/rror-04.htm#21

The Rules of the Washington State Legislature provides:
http://www1.leg.wa.gov/Legislature/_templates/Content.aspx?NRMODE=Published&
NRNODEGUID=%7bBC497E29-51F4-421E-96AA-E998A0416908%7d&NRORIGINALURL=%2fhouse
%2fgeninfo%2fhouse%2520rules%2ehtm&NRCACHEHINT=Guest#anchor22

The Rules of the Arizona House provide:
http://www.azleg.state.az.us/hrules.htm#RULE%204

The Rules of the California Senate, at Rule #82, provide:
http://www.senate.ca.gov/~newsen/schedules/asmrul.htp

The Rules of the New York Senate, at Rule III.1., provide:
http://www.senate.state.ny.us/lbdcinfo/senrules.html

The Rules of the Georgia Senate, at Rule 8-1.11., provide:
http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2005_06/senate/publications/senaterules2005.pdf

Questions about this system?
Contact the Voting Admin.
The Green Party of the United States voting system is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
You can download a copy here.
To independently verify a ranked choice vote, or for information about how that works, go to Jonathan Lundell's Voting Page and upload the ballot file from the ranked choice vote result page. JL's ranked choice module is licensed under an alternate free software license.

Green Party of the United States