can a board member change his vote after meeting?

One of our HOA board members said that he wanted to change his vote on a motion that was voted on at our monthly meeting a couple of weeks ago. Is he allowed to do that, since the minutes of that meeting haven't been approved yet?

Thank you for your response. I agree with you...but our property manager told this person that as long as the minutes weren't approved yet it was ok to just change the vote. Actually, in this instance, it wouldn't matter, because the motion would still pass. But I don't want any precedents set where anyone could just change the outcome of a vote so easily.

That sounds good! Thank you!

Hi Ruth,
If your Board's authority for parliamentary procedure is Robert's Rules of Order .... you are heading for a disaster if you do as suggested with attaching an addendum to your minutes stating such.

Your minutes have nothing to do with the handling of your situation and are a record of what happened at your meeting... Not what you or someone else wanted to happen or did incorrectly (vote).

Here's how it works........

If a member wishes to change his vote before the chair announces the results of the votes, no problem... just ask that your vote be changed to a "Nay" or "Yay" whichever suits the case before the results are announced.

If a member wishes to change his vote after the chair announces the vote results, you may ask for a reconsidering of the motion at the same meeting. If the board agrees to reconsider (by voting on the reconsideration which takes unanimous consent), the motion is restated, is debatable and voted upon.

If the meeting is adjourned the vote cannot be "changed" but the person may wish to have the original motion resinded at the next meeting. He may give notice of his intent to the secretary prior to the meeting and ask that the matter be placed on the agenda for consideration of resinding. Then, at the meeting, the motion to resind may be made and a majority will prevail. If the member does not give notice of his intent ahead of the meeting, he may move to resind and 2/3rds are needed to pass.

Important...not all matters may be resinded and since I am unclear as to your main motion, you might want to check with the latest edition of Robert's Rules of Order regarding resinding or amending something previously adopted. Also, you didn't mention if his changed vote will change the outcome of the original vote i.e. passing or failing to pass. If he merely wants his "vote" changed for the record, it is, I'm sorry to say, too late.

HTH,
Ann

Suresh,

However this is handled will set a precedent and that is why,IMO, it should be handled properly, regardless of whether changing a vote will impact the outcome or not. If you consider that making a mountain out of "a ant hill" (a mole hill) so be it. The board should always be concerned with doing things the right way, even if it's not the easy way.

To all who replied to my post:

I'm new to this forum and am so happy that I found it. Your responses certainly gave me different perspectives of the issue. To SureshD: This is definitely not an "ant hill" situation, but a political move on a personal agenda by the person involved. That's why it's so important that it be handled correctly. The actual outcome of the vote wouldn't change anything, but I agree with AnnJ1 that we'd be heading for a disaster if we didn't follow Robert's Rules. Many thanks to you all.