Where More Than Two Issues Are to Be Voted On
In the immediate prospect of a meeting of the Governing Body, where matters may be debated of very great importance, on which various and conflicting opinions are known to be held, I venture to offer a few suggestions as to the mode of taking votes. On this subject I printed a paper some little time ago, but have since seen reason to modify some of the views therein expressed. Especially, I do not now advocate the method, there proposed, as a good one to begin with. When other means have failed, it may prove useful, but that is not likely to happen often, and, when the difficulty does arise, the question what should next be done may fairly be debated on its own merits.
C. L. D.
Ch. Ch., June 13, 1874.
§ 1. Votes to be taken in writing.
The method here suggested is to divide a sheet of paper into as many columns as there are issues to be voted on, and place the name of each at the head of a column. The paper is then passed round, each voter placing his name in the column he prefers.
The only objection to this method, that I can think of, is that it takes rather more time than voting vivâ voce; and even this is not always the case, as it is by no means unusual for a doubt to arise as to the result of a vivâ voce vote, which makes it necessary to take the votes over again.
Its advantages are, that it enables the division-list to be put on record, which I think should always be done when an important matter is voted on, except in elections of Students, in which case there are obvious objections to the names of the voters being recorded.
At the end of a meeting, it should be settled which of the division-lists, if any, are to be entered on the minutes; and the other lists might then be destroyed.
§ 2. A list to be made of all the issues to be voted on.
This should be done before any vote is taken at all. The list should contain every issue which is proposed, and seconded, for entry on it. The general negative issue (‘that there be no election,’ or, ‘that nothing be done’) should, I think, find a place on this list (provided of course that it be proposed and seconded), and should not be voted on separately—a course sometimes adopted, but which I think I have shown, in a former paper on this subject, to be unsound.
§ 3. The first vote to be taken on all the issues collectively.
This course is suggested in the hope that it may give an absolute majority (or such a majority as may be previously declared to be binding), so as to settle the question at once.
§ 4. Failing a settlement by this method, the issues to be then voted on two at a time.
This course is suggested in the hope that by it some one issue may be discovered, which is preferred by a majority to every other taken separately. For this purpose, any two may be put up to begin with, then the winning issue along with some other, and so on. But no issue can be considered as the absolute winner, unless it has been put up along with every other.
§ 5. Failing a settlement by this method also, further proceedings may be then debated on.
If no settlement has been arrived at by § 3 or § 4, it will at least prove that the matter is one on which the meeting is very evenly divided in opinion. Such a state of things is of course very difficult to deal with, but the difficulty, though possibly not dimiinished, will certainly not have been increased by adopting the process I have here suggested.