Resolution C:
Amend Rules to
Regularize Electronic Voting

Status

This amendment to the Rules was passed by the 175th Convention on Saturday, October 26th, 2024.

Resolved, That the Rules of the Convention be amended as follows:

(remove strikethrough text, add italic bold text)

Section 5 – Nominations

5.1 Under the proper order of business, the Committee on Nominations will shall propose two or more names, if possible, otherwise only the number required for a specific office.  Nominations may be made from the floor at that time.  No seconds are required.  In placing a name in nomination, the following are required: 1) the name and position held by the person being nominated; 2) prior consent given by the individual to be placed in nomination; and 3) biographical material prepared and distributed.

5.2 Upon completion of nominations, the Committee on Elections will shall print and furnish the Convention with sufficient ballots containing the names of all persons nominated for each office requiring an election.  The clergy and lay ballots will shall be distinguished by paper of different colors, identified with the name of the office; except that if automated vote-counting equipment is employed, then the form of the ballot may be as specified by the manufacturer, provided that there is a clear distinction between votes cast by clergy and by lay members. and the manufacturer does not supply ballots of different colors, then paper of the same color may be used, provided that the name of the order is printed on each ballot using a font of 24 points or greater.

5.3 The Secretary will shall provide the registrars or tellers with a voting list, in the Order for which they are registrars or tellers, corrected to show those entitled to vote.  The registrars or tellers will shall provide ballots or electronic access credentials to voters only after checking the names of the voters on the voting list. 

5.4 If the number of names nominated does not exceed the number required for each office, the ballot for that office may, by unanimous consent, be cast by the Secretary.

Section 7 – Conduct of Elections

This section applies only when paper ballots are used for elections, including use of automated vote-counting equipment for tabulating paper ballots.

[The rest of section 7 is unchanged.]

Section 8 – Conduct of Electronic Elections

This section applies only when an electronic voting system is used to collect and tabulate ballots for elections, as well as votes on motions and resolutions requiring a vote by the Convention.

8.1 The Committee on Elections may, with the consent of the President and Secretary, employ an electronic voting system to enter and canvass ballots.  The system must:

a) require that each member of the Convention use unique credentials to access and enter a ballot;

b) prevent any member of Convention from casting more votes for an office than specified in Section 6 of these rules;

c) allow for canvass by clergy and lay orders, producing separate vote totals by order;

d) maintain auditable records of who voted and the results for each ballot or motion;

e) include suitable security to limit administration of the system to trusted individuals.

8.2 The Secretary, Committee on Elections, and Registrars will take reasonable precautions to prevent voting by persons not present except when remote attendance is authorized under Canon 1.02(b).

8.3 Voting will be conducted using personal electronic devices or other devices at a convenient place.  Suitable devices will be provided for members unable to use a personal electronic device.  The polls will be opened at a time and for a period fixed by the Convention.  The system will not permit voting until the Chair declares the polls open.  When the time for voting expires, the Chair of the Committee on Elections will declare the polls closed, the system will prevent additional voting, and the tellers will proceed to record the vote.

8.4 The Secretary will make available provisional paper ballots for any members who are unable to vote electronically.  The tellers will add votes from the provisional ballots to the totals provided by the voting system after verifying that votes from the same members are not included in the electronic totals. In the event of a conflict between an electronic vote and a provisional ballot, the provisional ballot will prevail. 

8.5 Any doubtful ballot will be referred to the Chair of the Convention, and the Chair’s decision will be final.

8.6 Each voter must enter a vote in the manner prescribed by the manufacturer of the voting system.  The Secretary and the Committee on Elections will provide instruction before and during the Convention regarding the proper entry of votes.  They may also provide coaches to assist voters during the Convention, but no coach may enter votes on behalf of a voter.

8.7 The Secretary will provide the tellers with vote result forms properly headed and numbered.  Each vote result form will have the name of each person for whom votes are to be cast, and all vote totals will be recorded only on that form.  The tellers will transcribe the results displayed or printed by the voting system to the vote result forms.  The tellers will be the only persons to record the votes on the vote result forms.  At least three tellers will observe and verify the transcription of each result.

8.8 The tellers will be able to access vote totals in the voting system directly, without relying on any one person to report the vote totals to them.  The tellers will cause to be printed suitable reports and audit lists from the voting system that may be used to verify the results.

8.9 Immediately after recording the votes, the tellers will place the audit lists and provisional ballots in separate envelopes for each order and will endorse on the outside of each envelope the following:

a) whether they were ballots of the Clerical or Lay Order;

b) the number of counted ballots, and if the vote did not result in an election;

c) whether it is the first or other ballot for the office;

d) the number of any ballots not counted.

8.10 Each envelope and vote result form will be signed by the several tellers and delivered to the Secretary.  In separate envelopes, the tellers will place the voting lists of the two Orders, properly endorsed, with the number of the ballot for which they were used.  The envelopes will remain unsealed until the close of that day’s proceedings.  It will be the duty of the Secretary to provide suitable envelopes for these purposes and to see that they are returned properly endorsed and sealed, and to keep them unopened, except as provided in Rule 7.9.

8.11 If the accuracy of the report by the tellers in any election should be questioned, rule 7.9 will apply.  The recanvass may include review of electronic data retained in the voting system.  The data in the voting system will be kept secure and free from tampering until the expiration of the time for recanvassing.

8.12 After the expiration of the time for requesting a recanvass, the Secretary may order the destruction of all voting records, provided that there is no request for a recanvass still pending.  In the event that electronic voting records are retained for future analysis, nothing will be disclosed publicly that would reveal the votes cast by any individual member of Convention.

Explanation:

During the COVID pandemic, when Convention was meeting remotely under public emergency provisions, we began using VPOLL as our primary voting system. Since returning to in-person Conventions in 2023, we have continued to use VPOLL with the addition of provisional paper ballots. The following proposed changes to the Rules regulate and normalize this electronic voting practice, incorporating what we have learned using VPOLL over the past four years, while allowing Convention to return to paper ballots at its discretion.

The existing rule 5.2 assumes paper ballots for voting as normative and is changed here to explicitly allow electronic voting. The original intent of rule 5.2 was to ensure that clergy and lay ballots can be counted separately.  

Most of section 7 is focused on proper handling of paper records to ensure that ballots can be recanvassed if necessary.  With VPOLL, much of the data is in electronic form and additional controls are needed to maintain its integrity.  Rather than trying to fix section 7, a new section 8 is proposed here to cover electronic voting.  While there is some duplication between sections 7 & 8, only the section applicable to a given convention needs to be consulted, and in the event we need to revert to paper ballots, the original rules are still available to the Convention.